Name: Japanese Rice
Ingredients: 1 cup rice; 1 pepper, finely chopped; 4 ripe tomatoes, chopped or 2 tablespoons fat; ¼ teaspoon salt

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 ↓

Japanese Rice

Ingredients

1 cup rice
1 pepper, finely chopped
4 ripe tomatoes, chopped or 2 tablespoons fat
¼ teaspoon salt

Directions

Cook the rice

Cook the rice in a double boiler until done.

Mix and bake

Remove from heat and add the chopped tomatoes, chopped pepper, fat, and salt.
Transfer the mixture to a greased baking dish.
Bake for 20 to 30 minutes.

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).
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice: Forms the bulk and body of the dish, absorbing the tomato and fat flavours.
Tomatoes: Add moisture, acidity and a fresh tomato flavour to the rice.
Pepper: Adds aroma and a mild, fresh vegetable flavour.
Fat: Adds richness and helps carry flavour through the rice.