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Pork Pillau

A rice dish cooked in the broth of boiled pork and bacon, with tomatoes, onion and rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and sage match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,388 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Pork Pillau

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Wash the pork and bacon, then boil them in plenty of water with the pepper pod, sage, and celery.

  2. One hour before serving, strain 2 quarts of the boiling liquid into a pot.

Make the pilaf

  1. Add the peeled tomatoes, chopped onion, and salt if needed; boil for 30 minutes.

  2. Stir in the washed rice and bring to a boil.

  3. Reduce heat and steam until the rice is cooked and the liquid is absorbed.

Serve

  1. Serve the pork alongside the rice.

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. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Sage + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together723 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Rice
Absorbs the seasoned liquid as it steams, becoming tender and fluffy.
Pork
Provides the main meat, becoming tender from long simmering in the broth.
Bacon
Adds smoky fat to the broth, enriching its flavor.
Tomatoes
Contribute acidity and moisture, shaping the pilaf's savory flavor.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth as it cooks in the liquid.

The step that matters

Reduce heat and steam until the rice is cooked and the liquid is absorbed. Rice cooks in a measured amount of liquid. Keeping the heat low and the lid on lets it steam evenly, while too much heat can scorch the bottom before the grains are tender.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, pepper, sage, celery, tomato, 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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