Why it works: Rice and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,399 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓
Rice Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the rice
Boil the rice in the stock.
Rub half of the rice through a fine sieve.
Put the stock in a stewpan, add all the rice, and simmer gently for 5 minutes.
Finish with egg and cream
Beat the egg yolks and mix them with the boiled cream, then strain through a fine sieve.
Remove the soup from the heat, add the egg and cream mixture, stirring frequently.
Heat gradually while stirring, but do not let it boil to prevent curdling.
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 + creamtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together3,399 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Rice + eggtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,350 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Its starch thickens the stock and gives the soup body, especially where rubbed through a sieve.
- Egg yolks
- They thicken the soup as they heat and add richness and a smooth, velvety texture.
- Cream
- It adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel, and helps soften the egg yolks' effect.
- Stock
- It is the liquid base that carries the flavour and cooks the rice into the soup.
The step that matters
Heat gradually without boiling after adding the eggs. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heating, but at a boil they scramble and curdle, leaving the soup grainy. Stir constantly and keep the heat low.
“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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