Basmati rice

Cineole cold over the popcorn pyrroline of the grain. Whole pods, never ground.

One pod in the pot and the whole steam smells of a fire that is not there.

Coat the grain before the water goes in and it stays separate for hours.

Bloom it in milk, streak it through. Half the pot stays white on purpose.

Fat drips down through the layers and seasons every grain it passes.

Eugenol is loud. Blank aromatic starch is the only thing that dilutes it.

Lactic acid tenderises the meat and its whey steams the rice.

Seeds popped in hot fat first; the grain takes the smell, not the grit.

Fried to brown crisp, folded through. Sugar and bitterness in one layer.

Menthol lifts the ghee weight straight off the back of the palate.

Doubling the pyrroline: the rice smells more like itself than it can alone.

Green fat and dry grain: the Persian answer to a crouton.

Fermented citrus musk over perfumed rice. Pierce it, do not grind it.

Persian move: fruit acid replaces the lemon and adds tannin.

The grain is already floral. This just names the flower.

Same 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline. The flower is the grain, concentrated.

Lactone sugar on popcorn starch: kheer with the milk taken out.