Name: Mexican Rice
Ingredients: 2 cups strong vegetable or meat stock; 4 tablespoons whole rice; 1 tablespoon chopped green pepper; 1 peeled tomato or ½ cup canned tomatoes; 1 onion, finely shredded; 1 tablespoon butter; ½ teaspoon salt; ½ teaspoon powdered chile pepper or paprika

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 ↓

Mexican Rice

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

2 cups strong vegetable or meat stock
4 tablespoons whole rice
1 tablespoon chopped green pepper
1 peeled tomato or ½ cup canned tomatoes
1 onion, finely shredded
1 tablespoon butter
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon powdered chile pepper or paprika

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

Bake

In a small stone jar, combine the stock, rice, green pepper, tomato, onion, butter, salt, and chile pepper.
Cover the jar with a lid and bake for 2 hours.

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).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,433 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice: Absorbs the stock as it cooks, becoming tender and giving the dish its body.
Stock: Provides the cooking liquid that the rice absorbs, carrying savory flavor throughout.
Tomato: Adds moisture and acidity that give the rice its characteristic red color and tangy flavor.
Onion: Softens during the long bake and contributes savory sweetness to the base.
Butter: Adds fat that carries flavor and gives the rice a richer mouthfeel.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Asparagusfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, rice, pepper, tomato, 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.