Skip to main content
Main

Kedgeree or Kidgeree, an Indian Breakfast Dish

A savory rice dish with fish, eggs, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Rice and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,379 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Kedgeree or Kidgeree, an Indian Breakfast Dish

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the rice until tender and dry, then let it cool.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the cooled rice with the flaked fish.

Cook and serve

  1. Add the butter, cayenne, and salt, stirring constantly over medium heat until hot.

  2. Quickly mix in the slightly beaten eggs, ensuring it does not boil.

  3. Serve when the eggs are just set.

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. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

  2. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Rice + fishtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together270 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it a light, fluffy texture.
Fish
Provides the savoury protein and flavour at the centre of the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, coating the rice and fish for a smooth texture.
Eggs
Set gently with the heat to bind the mixture and add richness.

The step that matters

Mixing in the eggs. If the mixture boils, the egg proteins tighten and turn grainy or scrambled instead of forming a creamy, just-set coating. Keeping the heat gentle and stirring quickly keeps the eggs tender.

“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.

More kedgeree recipes

Salmon 7Cold 3 See all 62 →

You might also like

Fried FishFried Fish120 recipesRice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesFish CroquettesFish Croquettes81 recipesScalloped CodScalloped Cod69 recipes