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To Boil Rice

Rice boiled in water with salt, lemon juice, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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

Prepare

  1. Wash the rice in several waters, rubbing it to remove dirt.

  2. Place the rice in a large pan of fast-boiling water.

  3. Add salt and lemon juice to the water.

Boil and test

  1. Stir occasionally. Boil for 10 to 15 minutes.

  2. Test the rice by pressing it between your fingers; it should feel soft.

  3. Remove from heat and drain the water.

Dry and serve

  1. Return the rice to the pan and let it dry on the stove, shaking occasionally.

  2. To remove stuck grains, add a small pat of butter to the pan and let it melt.

  3. If the rice is to be served as a vegetable, drain the water and add ½ to 1 pint of stock, simmer until fully cooked.

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 + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

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

  2. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Provides the starch that softens and forms the body of the cooked dish.
Butter
Coats the grains so stuck pieces release and the rice gains a little richness.

The step that matters

Testing for doneness by pressing the grains. Rice can look cooked while the centre remains firm. Pressing a grain between the fingers checks that the starch has softened through, and stopping at the right point prevents the grains from turning mushy.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Mangofits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, 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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