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Broccoli, Cheddar and Wild Rice Casserole

Although my parents to have loved us, there were all sorts of delicious foods that my sister and I knew our friends got to eat in their homes that we were denied in our own, glorious meal-like substances such as shake-and-bake chicken, hamburger helpers, sugar cereals with colorful marshmallows, and popcorn in that thing that unspirals itself and expands in the oven, like, whoa. Childhood was tough! Even now as (theoretically) an adult, I routinely hear about wondrous foods that I have never even once experienced, such as the broccoli-cheese casserole that someone (was it you?) requested I try my hand at earlier this year.

By smittenkitchen · From Open Recipes · 14 ingredients
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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

Ingredients

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

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By smittenkitchen. 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. Wild rice + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together56 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Broccoli + mustardtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together705 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Broccoli + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,072 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, onion, wild rice, broccoli, garlic, pepper, flour):

  1. Chivebetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Spinachabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, wild rice, broccoli, garlic, pepper, flour. 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).