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Risotto a LA Milanaise

A saffron-infused rice dish cooked with onion, butter, flour, pepper, and Parmesan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and saffron work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 629 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Risotto a LA Milanaise

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Fry the sliced onion slowly until browned, then strain the butter.

  2. Add the rice to the simmering butter and gently color it to a bright yellow.

Cook and finish

  1. Combine the rice with the boiling broth and stew in a copper pan for 15 to 20 minutes.

  2. Stir in the butter mixed with flour, season with pepper or cayenne, and add grated Parmesan.

  3. Boil gently for 10 minutes and serve hot as a potage.

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 + saffrontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Saffron + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Absorbs the broth and turns creamy as its starch releases during stewing.
Butter
Carries the flavor of the onion and coats the rice, adding richness.
Broth
Cooks the rice gradually and supplies the liquid that makes it soft and saucy.
Saffron
Gives the rice its golden color and a distinctive aroma.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory depth and helps thicken the finished dish.

The step that matters

Stewing the rice with the broth. Rice needs enough liquid and gentle heat to release its starch slowly. Boiling too hard or letting it dry out can leave it unevenly cooked and not creamy.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, saffron, butter, flour, pepper, 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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