Name: Ckeam of Rice Soup
Ingredients: 2 quarts chicken stock; 1 cup rice; 1 quart cream or milk; 1 small onion, chopped; 1 stalk celery, chopped; Salt and pepper to taste; 1 tablespoon butter (if using milk)

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Ckeam of Rice Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

Wash the rice carefully and add it to the chicken stock along with the onion and celery.
Cook slowly for 2 hours.
Strain the mixture through a sieve and add salt and pepper to taste.

Finish and serve

In a separate saucepan, heat the cream or milk until just boiling, then add it to the soup.
If using milk, stir in the butter before serving.

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.

Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,769 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

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 stock into a smooth, starchy body.
Cream or milk: Adds richness and a silky texture while softening the soup's flavor.
Chicken stock: Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor of the whole soup.
Butter: Adds fat and a rounder, richer mouthfeel when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Heating the cream or milk. Bringing dairy to a boil before adding it to the hot soup can cause curdling or scorching if it is overheated, so heat it just to boiling and add it gradually.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, rice, cream, onion, pepper, butter, milk):

Garlicfits about as well
Celerythe original
Thymefits about as well
Nutmegfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, rice, cream, onion, pepper, butter, 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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Ckeam of Rice Soup