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Cream of Rice

A creamy rice soup made with stock, milk, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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

Cook the rice

  1. Cover the rice with the stock in a pot.

  2. Add the onion and celery salt.

  3. Boil for 35 minutes.

  4. Press the mixture through a colander.

Finish and serve

  1. Stir in the hot milk.

  2. Thicken with flour or rice water.

  3. Add the butter and serve.

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. Rice + chickentop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Its starch softens during boiling and gives the soup body once pressed.
Chicken or veal stock
Provides the cooking liquid and the savory base flavor.
Milk
Adds creaminess and a soft, mild richness.
Flour
Thickens the liquid, adding body to the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Thickening with flour or rice water. Flour clumps if it is added directly to hot liquid. Mixing it with a little cold liquid first, or stirring it in gradually, lets the starch disperse evenly so the soup thickens smoothly without lumps.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, chicken, onion, milk, flour, butter):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, chicken, onion, milk, flour, butter. 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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