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Soup

Mutton and Rice Soup

A soup made from mutton fat, rice, milk, eggs, seasoning, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Mutton and Rice Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Remove all the fat from the liquid in which the mutton was boiled.

  2. Heat the fat over the fire and add the rice.

  3. Cook slowly until the rice is broken down.

  4. Strain the mixture through a soup sieve.

Finish and serve

  1. Add seasoning and minced parsley, then heat to boiling.

  2. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs into the hot milk that has been cooked for a minute to thicken.

  3. Pour the milk and egg mixture into the soup and serve in a tureen.

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

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

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

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

  3. Mutton + ricetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

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

  4. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Mutton + milktop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together814 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Breaks down during slow cooking to thicken the soup and give it body.
Eggs
Enriches the soup and thickens it gently when stirred into the hot milk and soup.
Milk
Adds richness and a mild sweetness, and helps make the soup smooth and creamy.
Mutton fat
Carries flavour and adds richness to the soup base.

The step that matters

Adding the egg and milk mixture. If the soup is too hot when the eggs are added, the proteins can scramble and curdle, leaving the soup grainy instead of smooth. Blend the eggs with the hot milk first, then stir gently into the soup off the heat or at a low simmer.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mutton, rice, milk, egg. 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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