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Milanese Rice

A saffron-flavored rice dish cooked with stock, onion, butter, and Parmesan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and saffron work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 629 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Milanese Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice

  1. Combine the rice, boiling white stock or milk, and chopped onion in a saucepan.

  2. Cover the saucepan and boil for 20 minutes until the rice is cooked and dry.

Finish and rest

  1. Blend the saffron into the butter and stir it into the rice along with the grated Parmesan cheese.

  2. Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, and mix well.

  3. Cover the saucepan and let it sit over the fire for 10 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.

  1. Rice + saffrontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Saffron + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  5. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Patna rice
Starch that absorbs the stock and gives the risotto its creamy body as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the rice a smooth, glossy mouthfeel.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory depth and salt, and helps the rice turn creamy when stirred in.
Saffron
Provides the golden colour and a distinctive floral aroma.

The step that matters

Cover the saucepan and boil for 20 minutes until the rice is cooked and dry.. The rice must absorb the liquid while cooking so the grains soften without drying out or sticking. Covering the pan keeps steam in, helping the rice cook evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, butter, parmesan cheese, saffron, pepper):

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, butter, parmesan cheese, saffron, pepper. 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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