Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓
Cold Meat Kedgeree
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
Remove the skin, gristle, and excess fat from the meat, then chop it coarsely.
Boil the rice until tender, ensuring 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 drained rice and season with salt, pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg.
Shell the hard-boiled eggs, chop the whites, and mix them into the dish.
Heat the mixture thoroughly and shape it into a pyramid on a serving plate.
Garnish and serve
Pass the yolks through a sieve and sprinkle over the kedgeree.
Garnish with finely chopped parsley and place in a 350°F (175°C) oven 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.
-
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together34,122 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
-
Nutmeg + parsleytop 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).
-
Nutmeg + ricetop 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
- Cold meat
- Provides the main protein and body of the dish.
- Rice
- Forms the bulk of the dish and gives it its light, separate-grained texture.
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Add richness and texture, with the whites chopped in and the yolks sieved over the top.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and helps the onion brown when frying.
- Onion
- Adds savoury depth and aroma once fried to golden.
The step that matters
Boil the rice until tender, ensuring each grain separates, then drain. Overcooked or wet rice turns sticky and clumps. Cooking until just tender and draining well keeps the grains distinct when they are later fried with the meat and butter.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, pepper, nutmeg, rice, egg, butter, parsley):
- Shallotfits better
- Potatofits better
- Carrotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, pepper, nutmeg, rice, egg, butter, parsley. 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.
You might also like
Rice Fritters84 recipes
Meat Croquettes52 recipes
Steamed Rice48 recipes
Meatballs37 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.