Skip to main content
Main

Chinese Almond Soup

A soup made with stock, rice, almonds, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chinese Almond Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Combine soup stock, chopped onion, parsley, salt, and pepper in a pot.

  2. Bring to a boil.

  3. Add washed rice and butter. Boil for 35 minutes.

Add the almond milk

  1. Scald almonds in boiling water, then drain, peel, and chop them finely.

  2. In a saucepan, combine chopped almonds and milk. Boil for 10 minutes, stirring well.

  3. Strain almond mixture through cheesecloth into the soup.

  4. Mix well and boil for an additional 10 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the soup piping hot.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Raw rice
Softens as it cooks and thickens the soup body.
Almonds
Provide nutty flavour and body once chopped and simmered with milk.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavour and a smoother mouthfeel.
Onion
Builds savoury aromatic flavour in the stock.

The step that matters

Straining the almond mixture through cheesecloth. Chopped almonds and milk must be pushed fully through fine cloth so the soup stays smooth; any coarse bits left behind will give a gritty texture.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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

You might also like

Rice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipesAlmond SoupAlmond Soup60 recipesSteamed RiceSteamed Rice48 recipesRice Griddle CakesRice Griddle Cakes28 recipes