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To Boil Rice

Rice boiled with water, salt, lemon juice, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,366 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

To Boil Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Wash the rice in several waters, rubbing it well to remove dirt.

  2. Place the rice in a large pan of fast-boiling water.

  3. Add salt and lemon juice to preserve the whiteness of the rice.

  4. Stir occasionally.

Boil and drain

  1. Boil for 10 to 15 minutes, testing for softness.

  2. Remove the rice from heat.

  3. Drain the water.

Dry and serve

  1. Return the rice to the pan.

  2. Set the pan on the stove corner to dry, shaking occasionally.

  3. Add a small pat of butter to the pan as it melts.

  4. Let the rice dry for about 10 minutes before serving.

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. Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Provides the starch that cooks into the main body of the dish.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the cooked rice as it melts over it.
Lemon juice
Acidity helps keep the rice grains looking white while they boil.

The step that matters

Boil for 10 to 15 minutes, testing for softness. Rice keeps cooking after it leaves the water, so pulling it too early leaves grains firm at the centre, while overcooking makes them mushy and split. Testing a grain or two during the boil lets you stop at the right point.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Mangofits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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