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Savoury Casserole of Rice

A casserole of rice cooked with stock, ham, and salt, then baked in a mould.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,536 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Savoury Casserole of Rice

6 persons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Wash the rice in two or three waters, then drain it well.

  2. Put the washed rice into a stewpan with the stock, ham, and salt; cover the pan closely.

  3. Let the rice gradually swell over a slow fire, occasionally stirring to prevent sticking.

  4. When the rice is quite soft, strain it and pick out the pieces of ham.

  5. Mash the rice to a perfectly smooth paste with the back of a large wooden spoon.

Shape the casserole

  1. Grease a mould (made for rice borders).

  2. Turn the mould upside down for a minute or two to drain away excess fat.

  3. Put some rice around the bottom and sides of the mould.

  4. Place a piece of soft bread in the middle and cover it with rice, pressing it in equally with the spoon.

  5. Let the casserole cool.

  6. Dip the mould into hot water, then turn the casserole carefully onto a dish.

  7. Mark where the lid is to be formed on the top by making an incision with the point of a knife about an inch from the edge all round.

Bake and serve

  1. Put the casserole into a very hot oven.

  2. Brush it over with a little clarified butter.

  3. Bake about 1/2 hour, or longer.

  4. Carefully remove the lid, which will be formed by the incision.

  5. Remove the bread in small pieces with the point of a penknife, being careful not to injure the casserole.

  6. Fill the centre with a ragoût or fricassee, which should be made thick.

  7. Put on the cover, glaze it, place it in the oven to set the glaze, and serve as hot as possible.

By Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

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. Ham + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  2. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Ham + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,526 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice (in the method)
Forms the casserole's structure when mashed smooth and pressed into the mould.
Stock
Cooks the rice until soft and adds savoury flavour as it is absorbed.
Ham
Flavours the stock and rice while cooking, then is removed.
Bread
Acts as a core inside the rice shell, then is removed to leave a hollow.

The step that matters

Mashing the rice to a smooth paste. A smooth, evenly packed paste holds its shape when turned out of the mould. Lumps or loose rice can crumble or leave gaps in the casserole walls.

Flavor stand-ins for the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ham, milk, bread, egg):

  1. Figbetter flavor fit
  2. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  3. Applebetter flavor fit
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ham, milk, bread, egg. 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).

“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.

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