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Casserole, or Rice Edged, for a Curry or Fricassee

A rice casserole with a crusted edge, served as a side for curry or fricassee.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Casserole, or Rice Edged, for a Curry or Fricassee

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the rice

  1. Soak and pick fine Carolina rice, then boil it in water with salt until tender but not mushy.

  2. Drain the rice and place it around the inner edge of a dish to a height of 2 inches.

  3. Smooth the rice with the back of a spoon and brush it with egg yolk.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 3-4 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. Cut veal and bacon into large dice, and dice the carrots and onions.

  2. In a stewpan, combine the meat, vegetables, butter, lemon juice, thyme, laurel leaves, salt, and pepper.

  3. Cook over medium heat, adding boiling broth, and simmer until cooked through.

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. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Rice + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,477 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Carolina rice
Forms the edible rice shell that holds the filling in place.
Egg yolk
Brushed on the rice to help it brown in the oven.
Veal
Supplies the main meat, which becomes tender as it simmers.
Bacon
Adds fat and savory flavor that bastes the meat and vegetables.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor through the filling.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich meat and butter.

The step that matters

Boil the rice until tender but not mushy. Rice keeps absorbing liquid and softening after boiling. Overcooked grains turn mushy and cannot hold their shape as a shell, so drain them while still firm to bite.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, veal, carrot, butter, lemon, thyme):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, veal, carrot, butter, lemon, thyme. 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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