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Cream of Rice

A creamy rice dish made with milk or stock, seasoned with pepper, salt, and optional vegetables, eggs, or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and celery 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 ↓

Cream of Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Wash and parboil the rice.

  2. Drain the water and add the milk or stock.

  3. Simmer until the rice is thoroughly soft.

Finish the soup

  1. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

  2. Add pepper and coarse sea salt to taste.

  3. Stir in the chopped celery or asparagus.

  4. For variation, add whipped cream before serving or beaten eggs just before serving.

  5. To thicken, mix flour with a little cold water or butter before adding.

  6. Season with onion, parsley, or nutmeg if desired.

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. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

  5. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Breaks down during simmering to give the soup its body and creamy thickness.
Milk
Provides the creamy base and soft, mellow flavour once the rice is cooked into it.
Celery or asparagus
Adds fresh vegetable flavour and a little texture to the finished soup.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a smooth, fat-driven softness when stirred in as a variation.
Eggs
Add richness and body to the soup when beaten in just before serving, as a variation.
Flour
Thickens the liquid when mixed with cold water or butter before adding.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a sieve. Pressing the soft rice through a sieve breaks it into a smooth purée. Skipping or rushing this leaves grainy, lumpy texture in the finished soup.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, pepper, celery, cream, egg, flour):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, pepper, celery, cream, egg, flour. 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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