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Rice Soup

A simple soup made with water, rice, butter, egg yolk, parsley, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,062 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Rice Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, bring 1 quart of water to a boil.

  2. Add ¼ cup of rice and cook until tender.

Finish and serve

  1. In a bowl, stir the egg yolk, then mix in the chopped parsley and nutmeg.

  2. Pour the egg mixture over the soup 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. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  2. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Softens as it cooks, giving the soup body and a more substantial texture.
Egg yolk
Enriches the broth and thickens it slightly when poured in, adding richness.
Parsley
Adds fresh, herbal aroma and a bit of brightness to the soup.

The step that matters

Pour the egg mixture over the soup. Egg yolk thickens when heated but can scramble if the soup is at a hard boil. Add the mixture gradually while stirring, and keep the soup hot rather than boiling, so it enriches smoothly instead of turning into curds.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, butter, egg, nutmeg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Turmericfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, butter, egg, nutmeg. 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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