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Kedgeree or Kidgelee, an Indian Breakfast Dish

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

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 or Kidgelee, an Indian Breakfast Dish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the rice until tender and dry, then let it cool.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the cooled rice with the cold fish, flaked into small pieces.

  3. Add the butter, cayenne pepper, and salt to the mixture.

Cook and serve

  1. Stir the kedgeree over medium heat until very hot.

  2. Quickly mix in the slightly beaten eggs and remove from heat before boiling.

  3. Serve the dish when the eggs are just set.

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 its light, separate grains.
Cold fish
Provides the main protein and flavour, flaked into the rice.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, coating the rice and fish.
Eggs
Set gently with the heat to bind the dish and add creaminess.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs. Eggs are proteins that set and then turn grainy or rubbery when overheated. Removing the pan from the heat before it boils lets the slightly beaten eggs thicken softly and evenly through the rice.

“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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