Name: Curried Rice and Tomatoes
Ingredients: 4 lb Patna rice; 2 teaspoons curry powder; Coarse sea salt to taste; 1 oz butter; 1 lb tomatoes; Butter for greasing; Pepper to taste; Water for baking

Why it works: Rice and tomato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,065 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Curried Rice and Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice

Wash the rice.
Mix 2 cups of cold water with the curry powder.
Combine this mixture with the rice, butter, and salt in a pot.
Cover the pot with buttered paper.
Simmer gently for about 20 minutes until the water is absorbed.

Prepare and bake the tomatoes

Wash the tomatoes.
Place the tomatoes in a flat baking dish with a few spoonfuls of water.
Dust the tomatoes with pepper and salt.
Place small bits of butter on each tomato.
Bake the tomatoes for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on their size and the oven heat.

Serve

Serve the rice in the center of a hot flat dish.
Arrange the tomatoes around the rice.
Pour the liquid over the rice.

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 + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,065 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,645 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Patna rice: Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs the curried water as it cooks.
Curry powder: Adds the main spiced flavour and colour to the water the rice cooks in.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the rice and browns the tomatoes.
Tomatoes: Add juicy acidity and softened sweetness that contrast with the rice.

The step that matters

Simmer the rice gently until the water is absorbed. Covered, gentle heat lets the rice steam evenly and absorb the liquid without scorching the bottom or leaving the grains unevenly cooked. Lifting the lid or boiling hard can burn the base and break the grains.

Swap the tomato

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

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Asparagusfits about as well
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, pepper. 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.

Tomato Soup526 recipes

Cream of Tomato Soup107 recipes

Rice Fritters84 recipes

Tomato Bisque61 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The 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.

Curried Rice and Tomatoes