Why it works: Rice and meat match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,471 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-methylbutanol, which smells malty, whiskey. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: wheat, fish, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Prepare the rice
Clean and drain the rice.
Moisten the rice in a saucepan with fat from boiled meat.
Strain the rice in some broth or soup.
Add grease, bacon, and salt.
Mix with the rice to make it swell.
Stir frequently over low heat until the rice is soft.
Strain through a colander and press with a wooden spoon.
Form the casserole
Grease a mold with the fat drained from the rice.
Cover the bottom with rice.
Place a piece of bread in the center.
Cover the bread with more rice.
Press the rice evenly with a spoon.
Let it cool until firm.
Dip the outside of the mold in boiling water.
Cover with a paste made of flour and water.
Flatten it and make an opening on top.
Bake and fill
Bake in a hot oven and baste with grease until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and take off the crust.
Carefully remove the bread.
Scoop out some rice from the inside, leaving enough to hold the filling.
Fill with minced meat or other fillings.
Return to the oven and bake until nicely browned.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Rice + meattop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,471 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
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Rice + flourtop 10% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together6,079 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Meat + flourtop 18% of all pairsAroma overlaplowMentioned together5,439 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Forms the body of the casserole and, when softened, sets firm as it cools.
- Fat from boiled meat
- Moistens the rice and carries flavor, keeping grains from drying out.
- Broth or soup
- Adds savory liquid that the rice absorbs as it softens.
- Grease
- Adds fat that helps the crust brown and gives richness.
- Pieces of fat bacon
- Adds fat and savory flavor to the rice.
- Flour
- Forms the paste crust that encloses the rice and bakes to a golden shell.
The step that matters
Let the rice cool until firm before unmolding. Cooked rice is soft and starchy while hot; it must cool and set so the shape holds when the mold is removed and the crust is opened for filling.
“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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