Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Rice Boiled
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pick the hulls out of the rice and wash it in cold water.
Combine the rice and cold water in a small saucepan with a steam pipe through the cover.
Cook
Place the saucepan into another saucepan with boiling water.
Add a pinch of salt, cover, and boil for 45 minutes.
Remove from heat and let it sit until the water is absorbed.
Serve
Fluff the rice with a fork before serving with milk sauce and a little brandy.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + brandytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,738 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Rice + saucetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,396 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Rice + brandytop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together378 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Milk + saucetop 29% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,759 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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 swells and sets into the body of the dish.
- Cold water
- Supplies the liquid that the rice absorbs as it cooks through.
The step that matters
Let it sit until the water is absorbed. Resting off the heat lets residual steam finish softening the grains and lets the remaining water distribute evenly, so the rice is neither wet nor hard.
“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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