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Risotto a LA Hilanaisb

A saffron-infused rice dish cooked with onion, butter, broth, and Parmesan cheese.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and saffron work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 629 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Risotto a LA Hilanaisb

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the onion

  1. Slice the onion very thin and divide it into shreds.

  2. Fry the onion slowly until browned, then strain the butter.

Cook the rice

  1. Fry the rice in the butter when it begins to simmer until it is a bright yellow tint over a slow fire.

  2. Add the rice to the boiling broth lightly tinged with saffron.

  3. Stew the mixture softly in a copper pan for 15-20 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the butter mixed with flour, seasoning, and grated Parmesan cheese.

  2. Boil gently for 10 minutes and serve hot as a potage.

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 + saffrontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together629 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Saffron + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Rice + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together879 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Absorbs the broth and gives the risotto its creamy, starchy body as it cooks.
Butter
Fat that coats the rice grains, adding richness and helping them toast lightly.
Broth
Liquid that the rice absorbs slowly, cooking it and seasoning the dish.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury depth and helps make the finished dish creamy and thick.
Onion
Browned slowly to add sweetness and a deeper savoury flavour to the base.

The step that matters

Adding the rice to the broth. The rice should be fried in butter until it turns bright yellow before liquid is added, so the grains coat in fat and cook evenly. Adding broth in stages, rather than all at once, keeps the starch releasing gradually for a creamy texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, saffron, butter, flour, pepper, parmesan cheese):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, saffron, butter, flour, pepper, parmesan cheese. 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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