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South Carolina Rice Pie

A savory pie made with roast beef, rice, bacon, and eggs baked in a pie dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

South Carolina Rice Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop the beef and onion.

  2. Stew the beef and onion in a saucepan with water, bacon, and sliced potato until the gravy is reduced by half.

Prepare the rice

  1. Boil and strain the rice, then mix in the butter and a little salt.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the meat in a pie dish, layer the sliced eggs on top, and then add the rice.

  2. Heat in the oven at 350°F (175°C) 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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together851 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

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

  4. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Onion + ricetop 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

What each ingredient does

Roast beef
Provides the main meat and flavor of the filling.
Eggs
Layered over the meat, they add richness and set firmly when heated.
Rice
Forms the top layer, adding bulk and a soft, tender texture.
Potato
Thickens the stewing liquid as it cooks and softens into the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the cooked rice.

The step that matters

Reducing the gravy. Stewing until the gravy is reduced by half concentrates its flavor and thickens it. If the liquid is left too wet, the filling can become soupy under the rice layer.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, butter, potato, egg, rice):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, butter, potato, egg, rice. 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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