Name: Rice and Mushrooms
Ingredients: ¼ lb. rice; ¼ lb. mushrooms; 2 tablespoons butter; salt to taste; pepper to taste; ½ cup water

Why it works: Mushroom and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 12,525 recipes mention both. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Rice and Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cook the rice in ½ cup of water according to the instructions for cooking rice.
Peel and wash the mushrooms, then place them in a flat baking dish.
Add a few spoonfuls of water, a dusting of salt and pepper, and a bit of butter on each mushroom.
Bake the mushrooms at 400°F (200°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.
Spread the cooked rice on a flat dish, place the baked mushrooms in the center, pour gravy over, and serve.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Rice + mushroomtop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together1,515 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together13,580 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together8,379 recipes

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

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together9,645 recipes

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