Name: Rice, Savoury
Ingredients: 1 cup unpolished rice; 3 cups water; 1 small onion, finely chopped; 2 tablespoons butter; a pinch of savoury herbs

Why it works: Rice and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,433 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Rice, Savoury

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cook the rice as in the previous recipe.
Fry the chopped onion in a little fat until soft.

Combine and serve

Add the cooked rice, butter, and savoury herbs to the pan, then shake over the heat until hot.
Serve with peeled baked potatoes and baked tomatoes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together42,912 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,645 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).