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Scallop of Rice and Cheese

A baked dish of rice, cheese, and breadcrumbs topped with buttered crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scallop of Rice and Cheese

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Cook the rice according to package instructions until it yields about 1½ cups.

  2. Drain the rice well.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a small baking dish, layer the rice and cheese, sprinkling a little salt and paprika over each layer.

  2. Pour the milk over the layers.

  3. Melt the butter and mix it with the bread crumbs, then spread this mixture over the top.

  4. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven on the upper rack until the crumbs are brown.

  5. 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Bread + cheesetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  5. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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 absorbs the milk as it bakes, giving body.
Milk
Provides moisture that softens the rice and cheese as the dish bakes.
Grated cheese
Melts into the rice, adding richness and binding the layers together.
Butter
Carries fat into the bread crumbs so the topping browns evenly.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping when baked with melted butter.

The step that matters

Bake until the crumb topping is brown. Baking on the upper rack lets the crumbs brown from above while the layers heat through. Pulling the dish too early leaves the topping pale and the centre under-set, while leaving it too long can scorch the crumbs.

“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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