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Rice Custard for Soup Garniture, Langtry Style

A creamy rice custard used as a garnish for soup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Rice Custard for Soup Garniture, Langtry Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Wash the rice.

  2. Parboil the rice for 3 minutes.

  3. Drain the rice.

Make the custard

  1. Combine the rice and milk in a saucepan.

  2. Season the mixture with salt, sugar, and nutmeg.

  3. Cover the mixture.

  4. Cook slowly until the rice is thoroughly done.

  5. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

  6. Dilute the egg yolks in the cream and almond milk.

  7. Add the diluted egg mixture to the rice mixture.

  8. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  9. Strain the custard through a napkin.

Mould and poach

  1. Butter small round charlotte moulds.

  2. Fill the moulds with the custard.

  3. Place the moulds in a flat saucepan with water to poach.

  4. Remove the moulds once cooked.

Cool and serve

  1. Let the custard cool.

  2. Slice the custard and add to the soup.

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. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Rice + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 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
Thickens the custard as it cooks down and gives it a smooth body once sieved.
Egg yolks
Set the custard when gently heated, giving it structure and richness.
Milk
Cooks with the rice to form a soft base and adds moisture.
Cream
Adds fat for a richer, silkier texture in the custard.
Almond milk
Adds liquid and a mild nutty flavour to the custard.

The step that matters

Poach the moulds gently. Egg yolks set into a smooth custard only at moderate heat. Boiling or fast heating makes the proteins tighten and curdle, leaving a grainy, watery texture.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, nutmeg, egg, cream, pepper):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, nutmeg, egg, cream, 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.

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