Name: Curried Rice and Tomatoes
Ingredients: ½ lb Patna rice; 2 teaspoons curry powder; Coarse sea salt to taste; 2 oz butter; 1 lb tomatoes; Pepper to taste; Water as needed

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 ↓

Curried Rice and Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

Wash the rice.
Mix 1 pint of cold water with the curry powder, then add the rice, butter, and salt.
Cover with buttered paper and simmer gently until the water is absorbed, about 20 minutes.

Bake the tomatoes

Wash the tomatoes and place them in a flat dish with a few spoonfuls of water.
Dust the tomatoes with pepper and salt, then add small pieces of butter on top.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the size of the tomatoes.

Serve

Serve the rice in the center of a hot flat dish, surround it with the tomatoes, and pour the liquid over 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.

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).
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,645 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 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

Patna rice: Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs the spiced cooking liquid as it simmers.
Curry powder: Supplies the dominant spiced aroma and flavour of the rice.
Butter: Adds richness and fat that carries flavour and gives the rice a softer, glossier texture.
Tomatoes: Add acidity and juiciness that contrast with the rich, spiced rice.

The step that matters

Simmer the rice until the water is absorbed. Rice cooked in a covered pan with a set amount of liquid needs the lid kept on and low heat so the grains steam evenly. Too much heat scorches the bottom before the grains are tender.

Swap the tomato

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

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Asparagusfits about as well
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, pepper. 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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Curried Rice and Tomatoes