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Kedgeree

A dish of rice, cold fish, butter, cayenne pepper, salt, and eggs, boiled and stirred.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Kedgeree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the rice as for curry and drain it.

  2. Put the cold fish, flaked, into a saucepan with the rice.

Make the kedgeree

  1. Add the butter in pieces, cayenne, and salt.

  2. Heat over a clear fire, stirring until very hot.

  3. Beat the eggs slightly and mix them in quickly, ensuring the rice does not overcook.

  4. Serve immediately.

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. Fish + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,488 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Rice + fishtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together270 recipes

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

  4. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

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

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 gives it its body.
Eggs
Set when mixed into the hot rice and fish, binding and enriching the dish.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, coating the rice and fish.
Cold fish
Provides the main protein and flavour, flaked through the rice.

The step that matters

Mixing in the eggs. Eggs set when heated, so adding them too early or leaving them over heat can make them scramble or turn dry and rubbery. Mixing them in quickly off the heat's peak keeps them soft and evenly distributed through the rice.

“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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