Name: Kedgeree
Ingredients: 2 oz. rice; cold fish, free from bones and skin; 1 teacup white sauce (made with 2 teaspoons cornflour and 1 cup milk); 1 hard-boiled egg; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste

Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Kedgeree

Ingredients

2 oz. rice
cold fish, free from bones and skin
1 teacup white sauce (made with 2 teaspoons cornflour and 1 cup milk)
1 hard-boiled egg
pepper to taste
coarse sea salt to taste

Directions

Boil and drain the rice as if for curry.
Break the cold fish into small pieces and mix with the white sauce.
Add the rice to the fish and sauce mixture.
Dice the hard-boiled egg and stir it into the mixture.
Season with pepper and salt to taste.
Serve very hot.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Fish + milktop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,432 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Rice + fishtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together270 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

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