Biryani Lab
Meat, yogurt, fried onions, ghee and spice per 100 g of rice, from Hyderabadi dum to Kolkata's biryani with potatoes.
319 recipes from 122 sites, each reduced to grams and written per 100 g of uncooked rice, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical pot, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.
Recipes
319
from 122 sites
Typical uncooked rice
400 g
about 2 1/4 cups
Lines weighed
82%
of ingredient lines
Weights printed
11%
by the source, rest converted
One name, several recipes. Each recipe is typed by what its title calls it; the medians below are per type, in grams per 100 g of uncooked rice. Types with only a few recipes are rough.
| Type | Recipes | Meat, fish or egg | Yogurt | Onions | Ghee or oil | Mint and coriander | Spices | Potatoes | Salt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyderabadi | 19 | 125% | 37% | 46% | 16% | 1.6% | 5.2% | 0% | 1.1% |
| Lucknowi or Awadhi | 8 | 105% | 34% | 87% | 14% | 0% | 3.8% | 0% | 1.4% |
| Kolkata | 6 | 196% | 49% | 91% | 35% | 0% | 5.8% | 186% | 0.9% |
| Malabar or Thalassery | 10 | 151% | 14% | 92% | 21% | 1.5% | 6% | 0% | 0% |
| Ambur | 5 | 180% | 17% | 34% | 18% | 0.9% | 2.8% | 0% | 0% |
| Dindigul or Thalappakatti | 5 | 180% | 22% | 87% | 15% | 2.3% | 5.8% | 0% | 0% |
| Chettinad | 9 | 135% | 17% | 50% | 18% | 2.4% | 5.2% | 0% | 1.2% |
| Donne | 3 | 140% | 17% | 22% | 18% | 2.4% | 6.1% | 0% | 4.2% |
| Sindhi, Karachi or Bombay | 9 | 135% | 29% | 31% | 19% | 0.7% | 4.2% | 100% | 0% |
| Pakistani | 11 | 133% | 22% | 44% | 7.4% | 0.1% | 5.5% | 0% | 3.2% |
| Nasi briyani or danbauk | 4 | 193% | 73% | 70% | 24% | 0% | 5.2% | 0% | 1.7% |
| Cape Malay or South African | 3 | 292% | 49% | 30% | 10% | 0.7% | 5.4% | 0% | 0% |
| Mauritian | 6 | 194% | 33% | 89% | 0% | 0% | 1.9% | 113% | 0% |
| Prawn or fish | 19 | 123% | 17% | 60% | 15% | 1.2% | 3.7% | 0% | 0.3% |
| Egg | 14 | 81% | 33% | 85% | 11% | 1.2% | 5% | 0% | 0% |
| Mutton, lamb or goat | 37 | 135% | 33% | 59% | 15% | 0.2% | 4% | 0% | 0% |
| Beef | 3 | 100% | 16% | 43% | 11% | 0.5% | 3.3% | 0% | 0.2% |
| Chicken | 76 | 186% | 33% | 53% | 10% | 0.05% | 4.6% | 0% | 0% |
| Vegetable or paneer | 60 | 0% | 11% | 55% | 15% | 1.9% | 4.8% | 0% | 0% |
middle half, and the median (the number at right; when most use none, the share that uses any)middle half of every recipesmall number after a name: recipes
Charted: types with at least 5 recipes. The table lists every type.
The median of all 319 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 400 g of uncooked rice. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| RiceThe scale for everything else | 400 gabout 2 1/4 cups |
| Meat, fish or egg26% use none; the rest mostly 470 to 825 g | 535 g |
| Yogurt25% use none; the rest mostly 90 to 250 g | 115 gabout 1/2 cup |
| OnionsMost recipes use 140 to 355 g | 235 gabout 2 cups |
| Ghee or oilMost recipes use 30 to 90 g | 55 gabout 1/4 cup |
| Mint and coriander37% use none; the rest mostly 4 to 14 g | 3 gabout 2 1/2 tbsp |
| SpicesMost recipes use 11 to 27 g | 18 gabout 2 1/2 tbsp |
| Potatoes79% use none; the rest mostly 305 to 580 g | none |
| Salt54% use none; the rest mostly 6 to 19 g | none |
Volumes are approximate: uncooked basmati 185 g a cup; cooked rice counts as 40% of its weight uncooked; yogurt 245 g a cup; sliced onion about 115 g a cup, fried onions about 55 g; ghee or oil about 220 g a cup; mint and coriander leaves about 18 g a loosely packed cup; ground spices about 2.5 g a teaspoon; a medium potato 213 g.
Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of uncooked rice. The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.
median 133% · 26% use none
Chicken, mutton, fish or eggs, weighed with the bone. Often more meat than rice; a vegetable biryani has none.
range 0 to 500% · those that use some, mostly 117 to 206%
median 29% · 25% use none
The marinade, and in a kacchi biryani the liquid the raw meat cooks in under the rice. A third of recipes use none.
range 0 to 177% · those that use some, mostly 23 to 62%
median 59% · most 35 to 89%
Sliced and fried brown (birista) for the marinade and the layers, weighed raw, plus any cooked into the masala.
range 0 to 277% · 5% use none
median 14% · most 7.4 to 22%
Ghee, oil or both, for frying the onions and drizzling between the layers.
range 0 to 103% · 13% use none
median 0.7% · 37% use none
Leaves layered with the rice. Light by weight, and many recipes ask only for a handful.
range 0 to 14% · those that use some, mostly 1 to 3.6%
median 4.6% · most 2.7 to 6.8%
Whole spices in the rice water, ground spices and masala in the meat, saffron on top.
range 0 to 22% · 2% use none
median 0% · 79% use none
Kolkata's addition, and Cape Malay breyani's. Four recipes in five have none.
range 0 to 487% · those that use some, mostly 77 to 145%
median 0% · 54% use none
For the marinade and the rice water, where much of it is poured away. More than half the recipes say only “to taste”.
range 0 to 18% · those that use some, mostly 1.6 to 4.7%
Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.
Recipes agree most on spices and onions: spices 2.7 to 6.8%, onions 35 to 89% for the middle half.
316 of the recipes come in 4 languages with enough of each to compare: English 240, French 46, German 17, Dutch 13.
English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.
Recipes with “vegetable” in the title: most use no meat, fish or egg (100% vs 20%); most add potatoes (75% vs 17% use some).
“vegetable” (16)the rest (224)middle half of all
Meat, fish or egg · share using anyrecipes with vegetable in the title 0% vs the rest 79%
Potatoes · share using anyrecipes with vegetable in the title 75% vs the rest 17%
Recipes with “mushroom” in the title: most use no meat, fish or egg (100% vs 23%); most use no yogurt (70% vs 18%).
“mushroom” (10)the rest (230)middle half of all
Meat, fish or egg · share using anyrecipes with mushroom in the title 0% vs the rest 76%
Yogurt · share using anyrecipes with mushroom in the title 30% vs the rest 81%
44 biryani recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 275, medians per 100 g of uncooked rice, compared within each language:
On no ingredient do the most-reviewed recipes differ from the rest by more than chance would explain.
50+ ratings (44)the rest (275)middle half of all
Meat, fish or eggthe most-reviewed recipes 134% vs the rest 133%
Yogurtthe most-reviewed recipes 33% vs the rest 25%
Onionsthe most-reviewed recipes 58% vs the rest 59%
Ghee or oilthe most-reviewed recipes 12% vs the rest 15%
Mint and corianderthe most-reviewed recipes 1.9% vs the rest 0.4%
Spicesthe most-reviewed recipes 5.1% vs the rest 4.4%
Potatoesthe most-reviewed recipes 0% vs the rest 0%
Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 0.3% vs the rest 0%
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
In 6 languages: English 240, French 46, German 17, Dutch 13, Portuguese 2, Italian 1. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 122 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.
Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (ghee and oil count as fat; curd and yogurt as yogurt; chicken, mutton, fish and egg as the meat), then divided by the weight of the rice. That is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.
82% of the 7,554 ingredient lines got a weight. 11% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups, spoons and counts with standard weights, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Garnishes and toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the numbers.
A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 109 were left out: 48 with no rice, or none that could be weighed, 17 with a title that names a different dish, 15 over the 12-per-site cap, 10 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed, 10 too few ingredient lines, 4 duplicates of other pages, 3 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (meat, fish or egg 3), and 2 too many lines without an amount.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.