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Irish Rice

A baked rice dish with butter, onion, stock, cheese, and optional egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Irish Rice

Ingredients

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.

Cook the rice

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped onion and cook without browning, stirring constantly.

  3. Add the washed rice and pour in the stock or hot water.

  4. Cook until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender.

  5. Stir in the salt, cayenne pepper, and grated cheese.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer to a baking dish and sprinkle with additional cheese.

  2. Beat the egg with a tablespoon of grated cheese.

  3. Pour the beaten egg mixture over the rice.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until slightly browned.

  5. Serve hot.

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. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

  5. Rice + cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together942 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Absorbs the stock as it cooks, becoming tender and forming the body of the dish.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor through the onion and rice.
Cheese
Melts into the rice and browns on top, adding savory flavor and color.
Egg
Binds the rice and sets during baking, giving a firmer, custard-like texture.
Onion
Adds savory aroma and sweetness when cooked gently without browning.

The step that matters

Cook the onion without browning. Stirring constantly over medium heat softens the onion and releases its sweetness while keeping it pale. Browning would make the dish taste bitter and change its mild flavor.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, rice, pepper, cheese, egg. 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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