Skip to main content
Main

Rice Gruel

A simple rice gruel made by boiling rice in water, seasoned with salt and sweetened with sugar or condensed milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Rice Gruel

Why it works: Sugar and condensed milk work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 804 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Rice Gruel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the rice thoroughly in two waters, removing any specks.

  2. Bring the water to a boil and add the salt.

  3. Add the rice and boil for two hours until almost entirely dissolved.

  4. Strain the mixture.

Finish and flavor

  1. If using rice flour, mix it with cold water.

  2. Add the mixture to boiling water and boil for 30 minutes.

  3. Flavor with sugar or condensed milk if desired.

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. Sugar + condensed milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,744 recipes

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

  3. Rice + condensed milktop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together57 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Its starch breaks down in the boiling water, thickening it into a soft, smooth gruel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the finished gruel.
Condensed milk
Adds sweetness and creaminess when used to flavor the gruel.

The step that matters

Boil the rice until it almost dissolves. Rice starch only thickens the liquid once the grains have broken down. If the rice is undercooked, the grains stay firm and the gruel turns out thin and grainy rather than smooth.

“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.

You might also like

Rice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesSteamed RiceSteamed Rice48 recipesRice Griddle CakesRice Griddle Cakes28 recipesRice and Cheese CasseroleRice and Cheese Casserole23 recipes