Skip to main content
Main

Rice and Onion Soup

A soup made with rice, onions, potatoes, tomato juice, milk, eggs, butter, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By T. R. Allinson · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Rice and Onion Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Chop the onions very finely.

  2. Fry them with the butter until slightly browned.

  3. Add the rice, pepper, and salt.

  4. Add the water and let the mixture cook gently until the rice is soft.

  5. Add a tablespoonful of finely chopped parsley if desired.

Make the soup

  1. Boil the potatoes in their skins.

  2. When tender, peel and mash them with a potato masher.

  3. Put the mashed potatoes into a saucepan with the butter, tomato juice, and water, adding pepper and salt to taste.

  4. Simmer the soup for 10 minutes.

  5. Add the milk.

  6. Boil again.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the saucepan to the cool side of the stove and stir in the beaten eggs.

  2. Serve immediately with slices of toast or Allinson plain rusks.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

461Calories
21 gProtein
14 gFat
66 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By T. R. Allinson. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Onions
Browning in fat builds a sweet, savoury aroma as the base of the soup.
Potatoes
Their starch thickens the soup and mashing gives it a creamy body.
Eggs
Beaten eggs stirred in at the end enrich the soup and give it a silky texture.
Milk
Adds richness and a mild, smooth flavour that softens the tomato's sharpness.
Tomato juice
Contributes acidity, colour and a bright tangy flavour to the soup.

The step that matters

Stirring in the eggs off the heat. Eggs thicken by gentle setting. If the soup is kept at a hard boil when they go in, the proteins tighten and curdle, leaving grainy specks instead of a smooth, silky texture.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, milk, parsley, potato, egg, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, milk, parsley, potato, egg, 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipesPotato RollsPotato Rolls78 recipes