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Broiled Rice

A dish of cooked rice mixed with white sauce and egg, seasoned, chilled, cut, and broiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Broiled Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Mix and shape

  1. Stir in 2 tablespoons of white sauce and 1 beaten egg into the hot rice.

  2. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and onion juice.

  3. Press the mixture into a broad, shallow dish and compact it with another dish or a large plate.

Chill and cut

  1. Place a heavy weight on top and refrigerate until chilled and firm.

  2. Cut into strips, squares, or triangles.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil on a buttered grill until lightly browned.

  2. Serve hot with game or broiled chicken.

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 + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 dish and holds its shape once pressed and chilled.
Beaten egg
Sets when heated, binding the rice so the cut pieces hold together.
White sauce
Adds moisture and richness, helping the mixture bind and brown.

The step that matters

Chilling until firm. The egg and starch in the rice set as the mixture cools and firms. Cutting or broiling before it is chilled and firm can leave the pieces crumbly or loose.

Swap the onion

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, sauce, egg, pepper, 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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