Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Side Dish
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
Season the chopped cold meat and wet it with gravy, if available, then place it on a platter.
In a bowl, combine the cold rice, milk, egg, pepper, and salt.
If there is not enough rice, add powdered bread crumbs to the mixture.
Assemble and bake
Spread the rice mixture thickly around the platter.
Place the platter in a 350°F (175°C) oven to heat and brown.
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 + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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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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Rice + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,259 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
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Meat + ricetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,481 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 rice
- Forms the bulk of the casserole and gives it body around the meat.
- Egg
- Binds the rice mixture with the milk so it holds together when heated.
- Milk
- Adds moisture so the rice mixture stays soft rather than dry while baking.
- Powdered bread crumbs
- Absorbs liquid and adds bulk when there is not enough rice.
The step that matters
Spread the rice mixture thickly around the platter. A thick, even layer keeps the mixture moist and holds it together while it heats. A thin layer dries out and browns unevenly in the oven.
“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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