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Pilau

Pilaf is a spiced rice dish cooked with chicken, stock, spices, onions, bacon, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pilau

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice and chicken

  1. Wash the rice thoroughly, place it in a frying pan with the butter, and cook over low heat until lightly browned.

  2. Truss the chicken as for boiling and place it in a stewpan with the stock or broth.

  3. Pound the spices and seeds in a mortar, tie them in muslin, and add to the stewpan with the chicken.

Cook and finish

  1. Let the chicken boil slowly until nearly done, then add the browned rice and cook until tender and almost dry.

  2. Slice the onions, sprinkle with flour, and fry until golden brown.

  3. Prepare the bacon slices by curling and grilling them, and slice the hard-boiled eggs.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cardamom + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together872 recipes

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

  3. Cardamom + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,114 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cardamom + allspicetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together137 recipes

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

  5. Coriander + allspicetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together393 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Absorbs the seasoned stock as it cooks, becoming tender and fluffy rather than sticky.
Butter
Fat that browns the rice lightly, adding nutty flavour before it is simmered.
Chicken
Gives body and savoury flavour to the stock that cooks the rice.
Stock or broth
Liquid that cooks the rice and carries the spice flavour through the dish.
Onions
Fried until golden, they add sweetness and browned savoury depth.
Cardamom seeds
Contribute a warm, aromatic flavour to the stock.

The step that matters

Adding the browned rice to the chicken stock. The rice must be added only when the chicken is nearly done, so it cooks until tender and almost dry. Adding it too early can overcook it into a mushy texture, while adding it too late leaves the grains firm.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, butter, chicken, cardamom, coriander, clove, allspice):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, chicken, cardamom, coriander, clove, allspice. 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.

More pilaf recipes

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