Name: Rice Gruel
Ingredients: 1 large spoonful of unground rice; 1½ pints of boiling water; 1 teaspoon of salt; 1 stick of cinnamon or mace (optional); ½ pint of new milk; 1 piece of butter the size of a walnut; pepper to taste

Why it works: Rice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,137 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Rice Gruel

Ingredients

1 large spoonful of unground rice
1½ pints of boiling water
1 teaspoon of salt
1 stick of cinnamon or mace (optional)
½ pint of new milk
1 piece of butter the size of a walnut
pepper to taste

Directions

Make the porridge

Boil the rice in boiling water until soft.
Add salt and optional cinnamon or mace.
Strain the mixture when soft.
Add fresh milk and scald the whole together.
Season with butter and pepper to taste.

Serve

Serve over toasted bread cut into small pieces.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,137 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cinnamon + walnuttop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,147 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Rice + walnuttop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together430 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Unground rice: Forms the body of the porridge as its starch softens and thickens in boiling water.
Milk: Adds creaminess and softness, and mellows the porridge when scalded with the rice.
Butter: Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished porridge.

“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.