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English Pilau

A spiced rice dish cooked with mutton, veal, ham, butter, and Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and parmesan cheese are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,163 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

English Pilau

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the meat and broth

  1. Bone the loin of mutton, trim off fat and skin, and cut the meat into equal pieces.

  2. In a stewpan, place the bones and knuckle of veal, cover with broth, and bring to a boil. Skim the broth, reduce heat, and simmer with sliced vegetables and sweet herbs.

Stew the meat

  1. In another stewpan, add the mutton pieces, raw ham, and butter; brown over high heat.

  2. Pour in ½ pint of broth, season with salt and pepper, and boil until reduced to a glaze.

  3. Repeat adding broth and reducing until the mutton is tender, seasoning with cayenne pepper.

Cook the rice

  1. In a saucepan, fry the chopped onion in a little butter until lightly browned.

  2. Add the rice and toss for a few minutes over the heat.

  3. Strain the broth from the bones and pour it over the rice; cook gently without stirring until tender.

  4. When the rice is dry and grains are whole, add butter and Parmesan cheese, stirring lightly.

Assemble

  1. Transfer two-thirds of the rice to a deep dish, make a hollow in the center, and place the stewed meat inside.

  2. Top with the remaining rice and level the surface.

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. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Rice + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together879 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow simmering in broth.
Rice
Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs the broth as it cooks.
Raw ham
Adds savory, salty flavor and richness to the meat as it browns.
Butter
Adds richness and helps brown the meat and onion.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory, salty depth and richness when stirred into the finished rice.
Veal knuckle
Releases gelatin and body into the broth, giving it a fuller texture.

The step that matters

Reducing the broth to a glaze. Boiling the broth down slowly concentrates its flavor and gelatin so it coats the meat. If it reduces too fast or burns, the meat can scorch and turn bitter.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mutton, veal, ham, butter, pepper, rice, parmesan cheese):

  1. Asparagusfits about as well
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, veal, ham, butter, pepper, rice, parmesan cheese. 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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