Name: Spanish Rice
Ingredients: 4 cups boiled rice; 1 large cup fresh or canned tomatoes; ¼ cup butter (size of a walnut); 1 sweet pepper, chopped fine; cayenne pepper, to taste; coarse sea salt, to taste; 1 cup grated cheese (optional)

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 ↓

Spanish Rice

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

4 cups boiled rice
1 large cup fresh or canned tomatoes
¼ cup butter (size of a walnut)
1 sweet pepper, chopped fine
cayenne pepper, to taste
coarse sea salt, to taste
1 cup grated cheese (optional)

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Bake

In a quart baking dish, combine the boiled rice, tomatoes, butter, chopped sweet pepper, cayenne pepper, and salt, then mix well and add grated cheese if desired.
Bake for 1 hour.

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.

Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,065 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,962 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Rice + walnuttop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 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

Boiled rice: Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs moisture from the tomatoes and butter.
Tomatoes: Provide moisture and acidity that flavour the rice as it bakes.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, carrying flavour and helping the rice feel moist.
Sweet pepper: Adds sweetness and vegetable flavour to the rice.
Grated cheese: Adds fat and savoury flavour, and browns on top as it bakes.

Swap the walnut

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

Beansfits better
Chickpeafits about as well
Black-eyed peafits about as well
Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, tomato, butter, pepper, cheese. 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.