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Tomato Rice

A simple rice dish cooked in tomato juice and water with lard and onion.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Tomato Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the rice

  1. In a skillet, heat lard over medium heat.

  2. Add rice and onion slices; fry for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly.

Simmer the rice

  1. Pour hot water and hot tomato juice over the rice.

  2. Boil slowly until the rice is 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 + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

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

  2. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Raw rice
Provides the starch that absorbs the liquid and sets into the final tender texture.
Lard
Fat that carries heat for frying and adds richness while keeping the rice from sticking.
Tomato juice
Adds acidity, color and savory tomato flavor to the liquid the rice cooks in.
Onion
Frying softens and sweetens the onion, building aroma into the rice.

The step that matters

Boil slowly until the rice is fully cooked. Rice cooks by absorbing liquid as its starch gelatinizes. A rapid boil can evaporate the liquid before the grains are tender or scorch the bottom, so a gentle simmer gives even cooking.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Cucumberfits better
  3. Okrafits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, tomato. 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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