Why it works: Rice and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,366 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
To Boil Rice
Ingredients
Directions
In a pot, bring 1 quart of water and 1 teaspoon of salt to a boil.
Add 1 pint of well-washed rice and return to a hard boil.
Reduce heat and let the rice cook slowly until all the water is absorbed.
Cover the rice and let it finish cooking without stirring to avoid burning.
For whiter rice, add a little lemon juice to the boiling water.
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.
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Forms the body of the dish as its starch gelatinizes and softens while absorbing the water.
- Water
- Cooks the rice by hydrating the starch and carrying heat to every grain.
The step that matters
Reduce heat and let the rice cook slowly until all the water is absorbed. Rice that simmers too hard can scorch on the bottom before the grains have softened. A gentle heat lets the water be absorbed evenly, so the grains cook through without burning.
“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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