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Soup

Cream of Rice

A creamy rice soup made with rice, water, milk, butter, celery, onion, egg yolk, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Henrietta Latham Dwight · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cream of Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice

  1. Wash carefully a third of a cup of rice.

  2. Put it on the fire in a pint of boiling water with a white onion and a stick of celery.

  3. Let it cook slowly for an hour.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in a quart of milk and let it come to a boil.

  2. Add a heaping tablespoonful of butter.

  3. Press through a puree sieve.

  4. Put the soup back on the fire while beating an egg yolk with two tablespoonfuls of cream and a teaspoonful of parsley minced very fine.

  5. Remove the soup from the fire.

  6. Stir in the egg and cream.

  7. Pour into the tureen and serve.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

413Calories
13 gProtein
14 gFat
59 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
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 Henrietta Latham Dwight. 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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Rice + parsleytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,762 recipes

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

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Its starch thickens the simmering liquid and gives the soup body.
Milk
Adds liquid and mild sweetness, giving the soup a smooth, creamy base.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat that gives the soup richness and a rounder mouthfeel.
Egg (in the method)
The yolk enriches and thickens the soup, adding smoothness and colour.
Cream
Adds fat that makes the finished soup richer and silkier.
Celery
Releases aromatic flavour into the cooking liquid as it simmers.

The step that matters

Remove the soup from the fire before stirring in the egg and cream. Egg yolk proteins set at high heat, so adding it to a boiling soup can scramble it into specks. Taking the pan off the heat first lets the yolk thicken the soup gently and evenly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, rice, celery, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

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