Why it works: Rice and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Cream of Rice
Ingredients
Directions
Wash the rice thoroughly, removing any imperfect grains.
Add the rice to the chicken stock and let it simmer for one hour.
If the mixture gets too low, add a little boiling water.
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.
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Rice + chickentop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,769 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Rice + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,389 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Starch that thickens the stock as it cooks, giving the soup a creamy body.
- Chicken stock
- Liquid that cooks the rice and carries its flavour into the finished soup.
- Milk
- Adds richness and a creamy texture to the finished soup.
The step that matters
Simmering the rice in stock. The rice must simmer gently for the full hour so the grains soften and release starch. If the liquid drops too low, the rice can scorch or cook unevenly, which is why the boiling water is added.
“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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