Why it works: Rice and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓
A Pilau
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Take a large fine fowl, and cover the breast with slices of fat bacon or ham, secured by skewers.
Put it into a stew-pan with two sliced onions.
Season it to your taste with white pepper and mace.
Have ready a pint of rice that has been well picked, washed, and soaked.
Stew
Cover the fowl with the rice.
Put in as much water as will well cover the whole.
Stew it about half an hour, or till the fowl and rice are thoroughly done; keeping the stew-pan closely covered.
Dish it all together, either with the rice covering the fowl, or laid round it in little heaps.
Variation
You may make a pilau of beef or mutton with a larger quantity of rice; which must not be put in at first, or it will be done too much, the meat requiring a longer time to stew.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Rice | 1 cup cooked (158g) white | 206 |
| Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 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
- Fowl (in the method)
- Provides the main meat, which cooks gently in the covered pot with the rice.
- Rice
- Absorbs the cooking liquid and softens to form the body of the dish.
- Fat bacon or ham (in the method)
- Lays over the breast to add fat and savoury flavour as the bird stews.
- Onions
- Adds sweetness and aroma to the stock in which the fowl and rice cook.
The step that matters
Adding the rice. Rice cooks much faster than meat, so it should be added over the fowl rather than at the start in longer-cooking pilaus. Adding it too early leaves it overcooked and mushy while the meat catches up.
“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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