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Rice Au Gratin

A baked rice dish mixed with white sauce, cheese, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Rice Au Gratin

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Cook the rice

  1. Wash the rice and add it to a large saucepan of rapidly boiling salted water.

  2. Boil for 12 to 14 minutes, then drain, wash, and dry thoroughly.

  3. Prepare the white sauce as directed.

Assemble and bake

  1. Once the rice is cooked and dry, mix it with the white sauce and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a shallow baking dish or several small molds.

  3. Sprinkle the top generously with grated cheese and add small pieces of butter.

  4. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until nicely browned and serve hot.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

  3. Rice + cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together942 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

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

Sauce and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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, giving it a substantial, starchy body once cooked and dried.
White sauce
Binds the rice together and adds creamy moisture so the dish does not dry out in the oven.
Grated cheese
Melts and browns on top, adding savoury flavour and a golden crust.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that helps the top brown and gives a silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Drying the rice thoroughly after boiling. Excess surface water dilutes the white sauce and makes the mixture loose and soggy, so the rice should be fully drained and dried before mixing.

“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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