Skip to main content
Main

Rice Soup

A creamy soup made with rice, milk, butter, onion, celery, and bay leaf.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Rice Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice and milk

  1. Combine milk and rice in a double boiler.

  2. Cook slowly for 30 minutes, keeping the boiler covered.

Add the onion and celery

  1. Melt butter in a frying pan.

  2. Add sliced onion.

  3. Cook slowly until onion is tender but not browned.

  4. Add chopped celery to the onion.

  5. Transfer the mixture to the double boiler.

  6. Add bay leaf and cover.

  7. Let sit on the back of the stove for 15 minutes.

Strain and finish

  1. Press mixture through a puree sieve.

  2. Return it to the boiler.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. If soup is too thick, add more milk to desired consistency.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  5. Rice + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,169 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Its starch swells and thickens the milk, giving the soup body as it cooks.
Milk
Forms the liquid base and gives the soup its creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and carries flavor from the aromatics.
Onion
Slow cooking softens it and builds a sweet, savory aroma for the soup.
Celery
Contributes a fresh, vegetal flavor to the base.

The step that matters

Cook the rice and milk slowly in the covered double boiler. Milk scorches easily over direct high heat. Gentle, indirect heat lets the rice starch swell and soften evenly while the milk stays smooth and does not burn.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, butter, celery, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, butter, celery, pepper. 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.

More rice soup recipes

Tomato 17White 16Chicken 10Italian 7Mutton 6Curry 5 See all 159 →

You might also like

Cream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesRice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesSteamed RiceSteamed Rice48 recipesRice Griddle CakesRice Griddle Cakes28 recipes