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Rice Pie

A baked dish of cooked rice, cream, eggs, salt, mace, and chicken pieces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Rice Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Assemble

  1. In a bowl, mix the cooked rice, cream, eggs, salt, and mace until well combined.

  2. Spread half of the rice mixture in a deep baking dish.

  3. Layer pieces of cooked chicken on top of the rice.

  4. Cover the chicken with the remaining rice mixture.

Bake

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until set and 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.

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

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

  2. Rice + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together932 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Cream + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,009 recipes
  4. Rice + creamtop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Cream + chickentop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked rice
Forms the bulk of the pie, giving it body and a starchy base for the filling.
Rich cream
Adds moisture and richness, helping the mixture turn creamy as it cooks.
Eggs
Bind the rice and cream together and set as the pie bakes, giving it structure.
Cooked chicken pieces
Provide the main protein and savory flavor layered through the pie.

The step that matters

Bake until set and golden. Eggs set as they heat, so underbaking leaves the filling loose and wet, while overbaking can make it dry and rubbery. Watch for a firm center and even golden color.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, cream, egg, chicken. 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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