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Kedgeree

A British dish of rice, fish, eggs, butter, parsley, and curry powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,762 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Kedgeree

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pan, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the cooked fish and flake it into the pan.

  3. Stir in the cooked rice and curry powder, mixing well.

  4. Add the chopped eggs and parsley, and season with salt.

  5. Heat through and serve warm.

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 + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

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

  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. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

Butter
Adds richness and carries the curry powder flavour through the dish.
Cooked fish
Provides the main flavour and flaky texture that defines the dish.
Cooked rice
Forms the bulk of the dish and soaks up the buttery, spiced flavours.
Hard-boiled eggs
Add soft, creamy texture and body to the mixture.
Curry powder
Supplies the warm, aromatic spice that flavours the rice.

The step that matters

Heat through and serve warm. Reheating gently until hot keeps the fish tender and the eggs soft. Overheating can dry the rice and make the fish tough and rubbery.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, fish, haddock, egg, butter):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, fish, haddock, egg, butter. 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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