Skip to main content
Main

Turkish Pilaf

A simple rice pilaf cooked with tomatoes, stock, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Turkish Pilaf

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the rice.

  2. Stew the tomatoes and strain them.

Cook the pilaf

  1. Add the strained tomatoes to the seasoned brown stock and heat to boiling.

  2. Add the rice and steam until the rice is soft.

  3. Stir in the butter with a fork and keep uncovered.

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. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + buttertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Absorbs the stock and softens as it steams, forming the body of the pilaf.
Brown stock
Provides the liquid that the rice absorbs, carrying the main savoury flavour.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and a sweet, tangy flavour and colour to the stock.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the finished rice a smooth flavour and sheen.

The step that matters

Add the rice and steam until the rice is soft. Rice needs enough liquid and gentle heat to absorb the stock and cook through. Lifting the lid too early lets steam escape, which can leave the grains firm in the centre.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesRice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesTomato BisqueTomato Bisque61 recipes