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Risotto

A creamy rice dish cooked with onion, butter, beef stock, Parmesan, and saffron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and saffron work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 629 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Risotto

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the onion.

  2. Brown the onion in butter.

  3. Add the dry rice (do not wash it). Cook until the rice is brown.

Cook

  1. Add the beef stock. Boil until the rice is soft.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in part of the cheese. Stir in the saffron.

  2. Serve with the remaining cheese on top.

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 + saffrontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Onion + beeftop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  3. Rice + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together879 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Rice + beeftop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,265 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Starch that absorbs stock and swells, giving the risotto its creamy, soft body.
Onion
Browned in butter, it adds sweetness and savory depth to the base.
Beef stock
Liquid that the rice absorbs as it boils, cooking it soft and adding savory flavor.
Parmesan cheese
Melts into the rice, adding saltiness, richness and a creamier texture.
Saffron
Adds a distinctive aroma and golden color to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Browning the rice. Rice toasted in fat until brown develops nutty flavor and a firmer surface, so it absorbs liquid more slowly and keeps its shape. Stop before it burns, since scorched starch tastes bitter.

Swap the saffron

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Pepperfits better
  4. Saffronthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, onion, parmesan cheese, beef. 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.

More risotto recipes

alla Milanese 17Milanese 10Mushroom 5Creole 3Pumpkin 3Saffron 3 See all 13 →

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