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Meat and Rice Loaf

A steamed loaf made from cold rice, chopped meat, onions, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Meat and Rice Loaf

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Melt the butter in a skillet and fry the chopped onion until golden brown.

  2. Add the cold rice and chopped meat to the skillet and stir well.

  3. Remove from heat and mix in the eggs, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Steam and serve

  1. Pack the mixture into a buttered pudding mold.

  2. Steam for 45 minutes.

  3. Turn out onto a hot dish and serve with thick tomato sauce.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when steamed.
Cold rice
Provides the bulk and body of the loaf, holding its shape when turned out.
Cold meat
Supplies the savory flavor and firm, chopped texture of the loaf.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the onion brown in the skillet.
Onion
Adds aroma and savory depth when fried until golden brown.

The step that matters

Packing the mold. Pressing the mixture firmly into the buttered mold removes air pockets so the loaf holds together and releases cleanly when turned out after steaming.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, butter, rice, parsley, egg, 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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