Why it works: Rice and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,645 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓
Rice, Boiled
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a warm oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the rice
Wash the rice well in two separate waters.
Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the rice.
When the rice is three-quarters cooked, drain it in a sieve.
Finish cooking
Butter the inside of a stewpan.
Place the rice inside the pan.
Close the lid tightly.
Place the pan in a warm oven (400°F / 200°C) or by the side of the fire until the rice is tender.
Serve
Serve with curry or your preferred accompaniment.
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 + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 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
- Rice
- Forms the main body of the dish and absorbs water as it cooks until tender.
- Butter
- Coats the pan so the rice does not stick and adds a rich flavour.
The step that matters
Draining the rice at three-quarters cooked. Rice keeps cooking from its own heat and steam after draining. Stopping at about three-quarters lets it finish gently in the covered pan, so it becomes tender without turning mushy.
“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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