Name: Savoury Rice
Ingredients: 1 cup rice; 1 onion, sliced; 2 tomatoes, skinned and chopped; pepper, to taste; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; thinly cut lemon rind; 2 rashers streaky bacon, diced; 1 cup stock or water

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Savoury Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Soak the rice overnight in water.
The next day, place the rice in a greased bag.

Cook and serve

Add the sliced onion, chopped tomatoes, pepper, salt, lemon rind, and diced bacon.
Pour in the stock or water.
Cook for 35 minutes.
Serve hot.

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.

Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice: Forms the body of the dish, as its starch absorbs liquid and softens during cooking.
Onion: Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it cooks.
Tomatoes: Add acidity and moisture, helping to flavor the rice as they break down.
Streaky bacon: Adds fat and smoky, savory flavor that spreads through the rice.
Lemon rind: Contributes bright, aromatic citrus oils to the dish.