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Casserole, or Rice Edged, for a Curry or Fricassee

A baked rice casserole with veal, bacon, carrots, onions, butter, lemon, herbs, and broth, served as a side for curry or fricassee.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Casserole, or Rice Edged, for a Curry or Fricassee

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the rice

  1. Soak and pick fine Carolina rice.

  2. Boil the rice in water with a little salt until tender but not mushy.

  3. Drain the rice.

  4. Place the drained rice around the inner edge of a dish to a height of 2 inches. Smooth the rice with the back of a spoon.

  5. Brush the rice with egg yolk.

  6. Bake the rice in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 3-4 minutes.

Make the filling

  1. Cut veal and bacon into large dice.

  2. Dice the carrots and onions.

  3. Combine the meat, vegetables, butter, lemon juice, thyme, bay leaves, salt, and pepper in a stewpan.

  4. Cook the mixture over medium heat, adding boiling broth.

  5. Simmer until cooked through.

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. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Carrot + thymetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  4. Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Rice + carrottop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,477 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

Carolina rice
Its starch sets into a firm, shaped border that holds its form around the filling.
Egg yolk
Brushed on the rice, it enriches the surface and promotes light browning in the oven.
Veal
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender and flavorful as it simmers in the stewpan.
Bacon
Its fat renders into the mixture, adding savory richness and depth of flavor.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and giving the filling a smooth mouthfeel.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich meat and fat.

The step that matters

Smooth the rice and bake it briefly. Cooked rice that is pressed to an even height and set in the oven forms a stable border. If the rice is mushy or unevenly packed, it will not hold its shape around the filling.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, egg, veal, carrot, butter, lemon, thyme):

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, egg, veal, carrot, butter, lemon, thyme. 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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