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Cream of Rice Soup

A simple soup made with rice, onion, butter, milk, and almond extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cream of Rice Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice

  1. Add rice and onion to boiling water.

  2. Cook until tender.

  3. Strain through a colander.

Finish the soup

  1. Add butter and scalding milk, then reheat.

  2. Season and flavor with almond extract.

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

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Starch that softens and thickens the soup as it cooks.
Milk
Adds creamy body and richness to the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for smooth mouthfeel and rich flavor.
Onion
Gives savory aroma to the liquid as it cooks.
Almond extract
Adds concentrated aromatic flavor in small amounts.

The step that matters

Reheat gently after adding the milk. Milk scorches and forms a skin when it overheats on the bottom of the pot. Stirring while reheating keeps the soup smooth and prevents a burnt taste.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, butter, almond. 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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