Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Kedgeree of Cold Meat
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the ingredients
Remove skin, gristle, and excess fat from the meat, then chop it coarsely.
Boil the rice until tender and each grain separates, then drain.
Cook the kedgeree
Melt the butter in a pan, add the onion, and fry until golden.
Add the chopped meat to the pan and fry for a few minutes.
Stir in the rice and season with salt, pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg.
Shell the eggs, chop the whites, and mix them into the dish.
Heat the mixture thoroughly and shape it into a pyramid on a plate.
Garnish and serve
Rub the egg yolks through a sieve and sprinkle over the kedgeree.
Garnish with finely chopped parsley and arrange neatly.
Place in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for a few minutes before serving.
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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Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,062 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together13,015 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,779 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together25,843 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
- Forms the bulk of the dish and, when drained well, keeps the grains separate.
- Eggs
- Whites are chopped into the dish and yolks sieved on top, adding richness and texture.
- Butter
- Fat for frying the onion, adding richness and carrying flavour.
- Onion
- Fried until golden, adding sweetness and savoury depth through browning.
- Cold meat
- Main protein, which is already cooked and is heated through with the rice.
The step that matters
Boil the rice until tender and each grain separates. Overcooked rice turns sticky and clumps together, while undercooked rice stays hard. Draining well keeps the grains dry and separate in the final dish.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, rice, egg, butter, parsley, pepper, nutmeg):
- Shallotfits better
- Potatofits better
- Carrotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, rice, egg, butter, parsley, pepper, nutmeg. 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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