Name: Pheasant with Rice Border
Ingredients: 1 lb rice; 5 oz butter, divided; 2 onions, peeled and chopped; 3 pints well-flavored white stock; Salt, to taste; Cayenne pepper, to taste; 4 oz grated parmesan cheese; 1 oz butter; Finely chopped parsley, for garnish

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Pheasant with Rice Border

Ingredients

Directions

Blanch the rice in boiling water and drain.
Melt 4 oz of butter in a stewpan over low heat.
Add the chopped onions and cook gently for 15 minutes without browning.
Stir in the rice and 3 pints of white stock, bringing it to a boil.
Cover with a well-buttered paper and simmer gently for 45 minutes.
Gradually add ¾ pint more stock, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
Once the stock is absorbed, remove the paper and season with salt and cayenne.
Stir in the parmesan cheese and 1 oz of butter until melted.
Turn the rice mixture onto a dish, forming a border, and sprinkle with parsley.

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,163 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Rice + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together879 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

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

Swap the onion

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

Potatofits better
Carrotfits better
Asparagusfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, pepper, parmesan cheese, parsley. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.