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To Make a Rice Border

A pressed rice crust formed in a tin mold, baked and served as a base for dishes like curried chicken.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,645 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

To Make a Rice Border

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cook the rice

  1. Bring the stock to a boil.

  2. Drain the rice well and drop it into the boiling stock.

  3. Boil rapidly for 15 minutes, uncovered.

  4. Reduce heat and steam the rice over moderate heat for 20 minutes.

  5. Drain the rice and season with salt and white pepper.

Shape and unmold

  1. Thoroughly butter the bottom and sides of a tin border mold.

  2. Press the rice into the mold and set it in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 15 minutes.

  3. Remove the mold and loosen the edges with a knife.

  4. Place a hot dish upside-down over the mold and quickly turn both over to remove the mold.

  5. Fill the center with Curried Chicken, Fricassee, Blanquette of Veal, or similar.

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

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

  2. Rice + white peppertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together439 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. White pepper + buttertop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Forms the structure of the border, setting firm as its starch cooks and dries.
Stock
Cooks the rice and adds savory flavor and moisture as the grains absorb it.

The step that matters

Drain the rice and season with salt and white pepper. Rice must be drained well before pressing into the mold so excess water does not make the border soggy or loose when unmolded.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, 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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