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Kedgeree

Kedgeree is a dish of boiled rice, flaked fish, eggs, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Kedgeree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the rice until cooked, then dry it.

  2. Divide the fish into small flakes.

  3. Cut the whites of the eggs into slices.

  4. Rub the yolks through a wire sieve.

Cook and serve

  1. Melt the butter or fat in a stewpan.

  2. Add the fish, rice, sliced egg whites, salt, pepper, and cayenne to the pan.

  3. Stir the ingredients over the fire until hot.

  4. Turn the mixture onto a hot dish.

  5. Press it into a pyramid shape with a fork.

  6. Decorate with the yolk of an egg.

  7. Serve hot.

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.

  1. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

  2. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Fish + ricetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together270 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

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

  5. Haddock + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together764 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fish
Provides the main body and flavour of the dish as flaked protein.
Rice
Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs the butter for a soft, fluffy texture.
Eggs
Add richness and texture through sliced whites and a sieved yolk garnish.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, coating the rice and fish and carrying flavour.

The step that matters

Drying the rice after boiling. Rice that stays wet will turn gluey and steam the fish rather than sitting in loose, separate grains. Draining and drying it well before it meets the butter keeps the grains distinct and the texture light.

“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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