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Almond Soup

A soup of rice and almond paste simmered with milk and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Almond Soup

Why it works: Rice and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,456 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Almond Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Wash the rice and place it in a farina boiler with 1 quart of milk.

  2. Cook slowly until every grain is tender.

Make the almond mixture

  1. While the rice is cooking, shell and blanch the almonds, then chop them very fine.

  2. Pound the chopped almonds in a mortar, adding a few drops of milk at a time to form a smooth paste.

  3. Combine the almond paste, sugar, and remaining milk in a double boiler and simmer for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Once the rice is done, carefully transfer it to a soup tureen.

  2. Pour the almond mixture over the rice, season with salt, 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  3. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
Forms the body of the soup, softening into a thick, starchy base as it cooks.
Almonds
Provide nutty flavour and a creamy, thickening texture once ground into a paste.
Milk
Supplies the liquid that cooks the rice and blends with the almond paste into a smooth soup.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the richness of the almonds and milk.

The step that matters

Pounding the almonds into a smooth paste. Adding milk gradually keeps the almond paste smooth rather than gritty or oily. Fine, even particles blend evenly into the simmering milk, giving the soup a uniform, creamy texture.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Peanutfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Beansfits about as well
  4. Milletfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, sugar, 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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