Name: Baked Rice and Tomatoes
Ingredients: 1 cup cold rice; 2 good-sized tomatoes; Salt and pepper to taste; Cracker crumbs for topping

Why it works: Rice and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Baked Rice and Tomatoes

Ingredients

1 cup cold rice
2 good-sized tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
Cracker crumbs for topping

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Assemble

In a baking dish, layer the cold rice and sliced tomatoes alternately.
Season each layer with salt and pepper.
Top with a layer of cracker crumbs.

Bake

Bake until heated through and the top is golden.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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.

Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,065 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold rice: Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs moisture from the tomatoes as it bakes.
Tomatoes: Add moisture and acidity that soften the rice and give the dish its fresh flavor.
Cracker crumbs: Brown in the oven to form a crisp, golden top layer.