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Turkish Pilaf

A Turkish pilaf made with rice, butter, tomatoes, veal or chicken, stock, salt, and cayenne pepper.

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

Turkish Pilaf

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice

  1. Cook rice in boiling salted water.

  2. Drain the rice.

Make the pilaf

  1. Melt butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the rice.

  3. Cook for 3 minutes.

  4. Add tomatoes, veal, and enough stock to moisten.

  5. Cook for 5 minutes.

  6. Add salt and cayenne.

Serve

  1. Serve on a hot platter.

  2. Garnish with parsley and toast points.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Tomato + vealtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together709 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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, absorbing butter and stock to become tender and separate.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, coating the rice grains and carrying flavour.
Canned tomatoes
Adds acidity and moisture, giving the pilaf its colour and tangy flavour.
Cooked veal or chicken
Adds savoury meat flavour and body to the pilaf.
White stock
Provides liquid that hydrates and seasons the rice as it simmers.

The step that matters

Add enough stock to moisten. Too little stock leaves the rice dry and firm, while too much makes it soggy. Stock should be added gradually so the rice absorbs it and cooks through evenly.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Carrotfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

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

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