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Rice in Shapes with Currie

A baked rice dish layered with curry, egg yolks, and bacon-lined mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Rice in Shapes with Currie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the rice

  1. Wash and boil the rice until half done, then drain it.

  2. Add curry powder, butter, bay leaf, veal broth, salt, and lemon juice to the rice.

  3. Cook over low heat until nearly tender, then let it cool and mix in the egg yolks.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a tin mold with bacon strips and fill it with rice, pressing it against the sides and bottom.

  2. Add the dressed curry on top of the rice, then cover with the remaining rice.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for one hour.

Serve

  1. To serve, gently turn it out of the mold onto a dish, remove the bacon, and make a small opening at the top.

  2. Pour in the remaining boiling curry liquor.

  3. Serve with plain boiled rice and tender boiled button onions.

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 + chickentop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

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

  2. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

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

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

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

  5. Veal + chickentop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,243 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-butanedione (buttery, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Forms the bulk of the dish and sets into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools and bakes.
Egg yolks
Bind the rice together and help it set firmly during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, carrying flavor through the rice.
Curry powder
Provides the main spiced aroma and flavor of the dish.
Veal broth
Moistens the rice and carries the seasoning through it.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, spiced flavors.

The step that matters

Cook the rice over low heat until nearly tender. Cooking gently keeps the grains intact and evenly moist. Mixing in the egg yolks only after the rice has cooled prevents the yolks from scrambling, so they bind rather than curdle.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Avocadofits about as well
  4. Grapefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, veal, egg, chicken, onion. 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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