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 ↓
Water Rice
Ingredients
Directions
Make the rice water
Wash the rice well in two or three waters.
In a stew pan, bring 1 quart of warm water to a boil.
Add the rice and the stick of cinnamon to the boiling water.
Boil for one hour until the rice becomes a pulp.
Finish and serve
Strain the rice water into a basin and sweeten to taste.
Let it cool before serving.
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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,137 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Breaks down during boiling, releasing starch that thickens the water and gives it body.
- Cinnamon
- Adds a warm, aromatic flavour that infuses into the water as it boils.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the finished rice water to the cook's taste.
The step that matters
Boil for one hour until the rice becomes a pulp. The long simmer is what breaks down the rice starch and softens the grains. Stopping early leaves the water thin and gritty, while boiling too hard can scorch the bottom of the pan.
“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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