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Broccoli Wild Rice Casserole

This is one of my very favorite Thanksgiving recipes from my new cookbook, and if I could eat it for breakfast right now, I c...

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Why it works: Wild rice and broccoli share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 18 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 12
Prep20 min
Cook1 hr 15 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Rinse the wild rice, then simmer it in about two-thirds of the broth, covered, until tender, 45 to 50 minutes. Drain any extra liquid.

  2. Melt half the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots and celery and cook, stirring, for 6 minutes until softened.

  3. Add the chopped mushrooms and cook for 8 minutes until they release their liquid and it evaporates. Season with the salt and black pepper.

  4. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir for 2 minutes. Slowly whisk in the remaining broth and simmer for 5 minutes until thickened. Add more broth to thin if needed.

  5. Stir in the broccoli florets and simmer for 5 minutes until just tender. Stir in the cream and the cooked rice, then taste and add more salt if needed.

  6. Spread the mixture in a 9x13-inch baking dish. Melt the remaining butter, toss it with the panko, and scatter over the top.

  7. Bake for 25 minutes until golden and bubbling. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

By thepioneerwoman. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Wild rice + broccolitop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together18 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Chicken + mushroomtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  4. Mushroom + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together12,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Chicken + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,808 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wild rice, chicken, broccoli, mushroom, butter, onion, carrot):

  1. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  2. Celerythe original
  3. Thymeabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Parsleyabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against wild rice, chicken, broccoli, mushroom, butter, onion, carrot. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).