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Rice, Savoury

A savory rice dish cooked with onion, cheese, tomato sauce, herbs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Rice, Savoury

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the rice in water with the chopped onion until tender and nearly dry.

  2. Stir in the cheese, tomato sauce, parsley, herbs, cayenne, and salt.

  3. Ensure the rice is firm enough to form a mound on the dish.

  4. 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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 sets the structure when cooked nearly dry.
Grated cheese
Adds richness and savoury flavour, and helps bind the rice together.
Tomato sauce
Adds moisture and acidity, giving the rice its tomato flavour.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cooking the rice nearly dry. Rice that is still wet will not hold a mound and turns soggy when stirred with the cheese and tomato sauce. Cooking until nearly dry lets the starch set so the rice keeps its shape when served.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, cheese, tomato, sauce, parsley, pepper, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, cheese, tomato, sauce, parsley, pepper, butter. 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.

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