Why it works: Rice and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,366 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Rice
Ingredients
Directions
Wash the rice thoroughly.
Put it in a saucepan and cover with cold water.
Bring to a boil, skim, and drain the water.
Rinse the rice and sprinkle it into a pan of boiling salted water.
Add a few drops of lemon juice to keep the rice white.
Boil until tender, about 12 minutes.
Strain off the water and rinse the rice under hot water to separate the grains.
Place the rice on a cloth and dry it in front of the fire.
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.
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Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,366 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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