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Savory Rice and Brains

A rice dish cooked with calf brains, cheese, and egg, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Savory Rice and Brains

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice

  1. Combine rice, gravy or broth, and boiling water in a pot.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  4. Reduce heat.

  5. Cover the pot.

  6. Simmer until the rice is tender.

  7. Stir in grated cheese. Mix well.

Add the egg and brains

  1. Beat the egg in a separate bowl.

  2. Add the beaten egg to the rice mixture.

  3. Gently fold in the brains.

  4. Cook until the brains are heated through.

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. Rice + cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together942 recipes

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

  3. Cheese + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,861 recipes

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

  4. Rice + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,350 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Cheese + eggtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,253 recipes

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

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 absorbs the liquid as it cooks to a tender texture.
Egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set slightly as it heats, giving body.
Grated cheese
Adds savoriness and richness, and helps bind the mixture.
Brains
Provide a soft, rich, delicate texture and savory flavor as the main protein.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg to the hot rice. If the rice is too hot or the egg is added too quickly without mixing, the egg can scramble in lumps instead of blending smoothly into the mixture. Stirring well and adding it gradually keeps the texture even.

“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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