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 ↓
Fish Kedgeree
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil the rice as for curry.
Mix the butter with the rice.
Make the kedgeree
Add the fish and season with salt, pepper, and cayenne.
Stir in the slightly beaten eggs quickly over the fire for 3 minutes.
Serve very hot.
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 + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + fishtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,488 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Rice + fishtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together270 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 absorbs the butter and seasoning.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, coating the rice so the grains stay separate.
- Eggs
- Set when stirred over heat, adding structure and a creamy texture to the rice.
- Cold dressed fish
- Provides the main flavour and protein, flaking into the rice as it warms.
The step that matters
Stirring in the eggs. Beaten eggs set when heated, so they must be stirred quickly over the fire for the stated time. Too little stirring leaves them lumpy, and too much heat can make them dry or scrambled.
“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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