Name: Pilau of Beef As Prepared in Spain
Ingredients: 2 lb rump steak, cut into 1-inch pieces; ½ lb streaky bacon, diced; 1 onion, chopped; 1 bunch parsley; 1 bunch sweet herbs; 1 piece butter or fresh lard (about the size of a large egg); salt, to taste; ½ pint good broth; 1 lb rice, picked, washed, and dried

Why it works: Onion and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,843 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Pilau of Beef As Prepared in Spain

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

In a stewpan, combine the beef, bacon, onion, parsley, sweet herbs, and butter or lard.
Set the stewpan over medium heat and cook until the meat is browned, seasoning lightly with salt.
Once the moisture reduces, add the broth and cover the stewpan.
Simmer until the broth reduces to a glaze and the meat is tender.

Add the rice

Add the rice and moisten with additional broth to double the height of the rice and meat.
Bring to a boil again for 5 to 6 minutes.

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.

Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,843 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Parsley + ricetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,762 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together28,563 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

What each ingredient does

Rump steak: Provides the main body of the pilaf and becomes tender through slow simmering.
Streaky bacon: Renders fat that carries flavour through the stewpan and into the rice.
Rice: Absorbs the broth and fat as it cooks, forming the bulk and texture of the dish.
Broth: Supplies the liquid that cooks the meat and rice and reduces to a savoury glaze.
Butter or lard: Adds fat for browning the meat and enriches the flavour of the dish.

The step that matters

Simmer until the broth reduces to a glaze. Cooking the meat slowly in covered liquid tenderises the connective tissue in the steak. If the liquid reduces too fast or too far, the meat can dry and stick, so the glaze should form only as the meat becomes tender.

Swap the parsley

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

Garlicfits better
Turmericfits about as well
Capersfits about as well
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, butter, 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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Pilau of Beef As Prepared in Spain