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Kedgeree

A dish of boiled rice mixed with flaked cold fish, butter, salt, cayenne pepper, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,379 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Kedgeree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the rice until tender.

  2. Dry and let it cool.

  3. Remove skin and bones from the cold fish.

  4. Flake the fish into a saucepan.

Make the kedgeree

  1. Add the cooled rice to the fish.

  2. Cut the butter into pieces and add the butter to the mixture.

  3. Season with salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

  4. Stir over low heat until the mixture is hot.

  5. Beat the eggs lightly.

  6. Stir the eggs in, cooking until just set but do not let it boil.

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 + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

  2. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Rice + fishtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together270 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 gives it a tender, fluffy base.
Cold fish
Provides the main protein and flaky texture that defines the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, coating the rice and fish.
Eggs
Set when gently cooked, binding the mixture and adding richness.

The step that matters

Stir the eggs in, cooking until just set but do not let it boil.. Egg proteins set at moderate heat and turn grainy or curdled if overheated. Boiling tightens the eggs and dries the dish, so keep the heat low and stop once the eggs just firm.

“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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