Why it works: Tomato and rice 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 ↓
Turkish Pilaf
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Stew a can of tomatoes for 20 minutes and strain.
In a double boiler, combine the strained tomatoes and stock.
Season lightly with pepper and salt, then bring to a boil.
Cook the rice
Add the rice and cook for about 1 hour, until the rice absorbs all the liquid.
Stir in the butter and keep warm for 20 minutes.
Before serving, remove the cover to let the steam escape and stir with a fork.
Serve
Serve on a plate or platter as a vegetable, with croquettes or pieces of chicken.
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.
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Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,065 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + beeftop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,448 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,971 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Beef + ricetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Absorbs the stock and tomato liquid, becoming the tender body of the pilaf.
- Strained tomatoes
- Supply the acidity, colour and tomato flavour that give the pilaf its character.
- Beef, veal, or chicken stock
- Provides the cooking liquid that the rice absorbs, carrying savoury flavour into each grain.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, coating the grains and softening the finished texture.
The step that matters
Cooking the rice until all the liquid is absorbed. Rice cooks in a measured amount of liquid. Lifting the lid or stopping too early leaves the grains wet, while cooking too long can make them dry and sticky. Keeping the cover on lets the steam finish the grains evenly.
Swap the tomato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, pepper, rice, butter):
- Potatofits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Tomatothe original
- Onionfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against beef, pepper, rice, butter. 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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