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Cheesed Rice

A baked dish of cooked rice layered with canned tomatoes and cheese, seasoned with salt and paprika.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and rice 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 ↓

Cheesed Rice

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer the cooked rice, canned tomatoes, and cheese.

  2. Season with salt and paprika.

  3. Repeat the layers, finishing with cheese on top.

  4. Bake until the cheese is brown.

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. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + cheesetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,896 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + ricetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together942 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding richness and a savory flavor to the layers.
Cooked rice
Forms the bulk of the layers and absorbs some of the tomato moisture as it bakes.
Canned tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that keep the rice from drying out during baking.

The step that matters

Bake until the cheese is brown. Browning comes from the Maillard reaction, which needs dry surface heat. Pulling the dish too early leaves the cheese pale and soft, while baking too long can dry the rice and tomatoes.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Tomatothe original
  2. Mustardfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Potatofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, rice. 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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