Name: Spanish Rice
Ingredients: cooked mutton or lamb; salt; pepper; cooked rice; tomato sauce; butter; bread crumbs

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 ↓

Spanish Rice

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Cut the cooked mutton or lamb into thin slices or cubes.
In a baking dish, layer the meat, sprinkling lightly with salt and pepper.

Layer and bake

Cover with ½ inch of cooked rice.
Add a layer of tomato sauce.
Repeat layers until the dish is full.
Spread buttered bread crumbs over the top.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

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).
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,013 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 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

Cooked mutton or lamb: Provides the meat layer and the main savory flavor of the dish.
Cooked rice: Forms the starchy middle layers that give the dish its body.
Tomato sauce: Adds moisture and acidity that keep the layers from drying out in the oven.
Butter: Coats the bread crumbs so they brown evenly and crisp on top.
Bread crumbs: Form a crisp, golden topping during baking.

Swap the tomato

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

Tomatothe original
Capsicumfits about as well
Asparagusfits about as well
Shallotfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, pepper, rice, sauce, butter, bread. 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.