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Curried Rice

Rice cooked in broth with onion, butter, and curry powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Curried Rice

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the rice

  1. Cover the rice with cold water, bring to a boil, then drain and rinse in cold water.

  2. Cook the rice in the hot chicken or veal broth.

Add the curry and finish

  1. When the rice is half cooked, add the sautéed onion and the curry powder mixed with a little butter.

  2. Mix thoroughly, add more stock if needed, and finish cooking in a 300°F (150°C) oven.

  3. Serve with hot chicken or veal.

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.

  1. Rice + chickentop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  4. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Absorbs the broth and becomes tender, forming the body of the dish.
Chicken or veal broth
Cooks the rice and supplies moisture and savory flavor throughout.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth when sautéed before mixing in.
Butter
Carries the curry powder and adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Curry powder
Provides the dish's main spice aroma and flavor.

The step that matters

Finishing the rice in the oven. Rice can dry out or stay firm if the liquid runs low during the oven finish. Adding more stock when needed keeps the grains moist and lets the starch fully gelatinize, giving a tender, evenly cooked result.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, chicken, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Tomatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, chicken, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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