Name: Perch with Rice in Dough
Ingredients: Dough:; 2 oz/50 g yeast,; 1 egg,; 1 cup milk,; 1/2 tablespoon sugar,; 1/2 teaspoon salt,; 1/2 cup melted butter (or lard or oil),; flour as needed;; Filling:; 1 cup rice,; 2 cups milk,; 1 cup water,; 3 tablespoons butter,; 3 hard boiled eggs,; 1 lb/500 g perch,; 1/4 teaspoon pepper,; salt

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Yeast: Ferments and makes the dough rise, giving it a light, airy crumb.
Egg: Adds richness and helps bind the dough, and gives the top a glossy glaze.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and flavour in both the dough and the rice filling.
Rice: Forms a soft, moist layer that cushions the fish and eggs inside the dough.
Perch: Provides the main fish filling, which cooks through within the enclosed dough.
Milk: Moistens the dough and cooks the rice, making it soft and creamy.

The step that matters

Let the rice cool before assembling. Hot rice would warm the dough early, weaken its gluten and yeast activity, and make the dough sticky and hard to layer, so it should cool fully first.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Lard	1 tbsp (12.8g)	115
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	not in our table	0

Perch with Rice in Dough