Why it works: Rice and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 2,990 recipes mention both. Both carry trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Cook the rice
Wash and dry the rice.
Warm the butter in a stewpan.
Add the rice and stir while it stews.
Add the Consomme and boil until the rice is tender.
If too thick, add an additional ½ cup of Consomme.
Mix in the grated Parmesan cheese.
Serve
Serve in china cups with a tablespoon of sauce poured on top.
Make the sauce
For the sauce, boil the onion, carrots, and celery.
Strain through a sieve.
Add the tomatoes (or Tomato Sauce) and mix with the Brown Sauce.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Rice + tomatotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,990 recipes
Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together10,172 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Celery + tomatotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,375 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Carrot + tomatotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,597 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Parmesan cheese + tomatotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,490 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Absorbs the consomme as it cooks, giving the dish its soft, tender body.
- Butter
- Fat that coats the rice grains and adds richness to the dish.
- Consomme
- Cooking liquid that hydrates the rice and keeps it moist as it simmers.
- Parmesan cheese
- Adds savoury flavour and a creamy, binding texture to the cooked rice.
- Tomatoes
- Add acidity and bright flavour to the brown sauce.
- Brown sauce
- Provides a rich, savoury base that is spooned over the rice.
The step that matters
Boil the rice in the consomme until tender. Rice keeps absorbing liquid as it cooks, so it can turn dry or mushy if timed poorly. Stop when the grains are tender but still hold their shape, and add the extra consomme only if the rice is too thick.
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, butter, parmesan cheese, carrot, celery, tomato, sauce):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Asparagusabout as good a flavor fit
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, parmesan cheese, carrot, celery, tomato, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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