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Cream of Rice Soup

A soup made with rice, stock, milk, and onion, simmered and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and rice 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 ↓

Cream of Rice Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Combine the soup stock, milk, rice, and onion in a pot.

  2. Cook over low heat for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the mixture to remove solids.

  2. Serve the soup very 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. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Milk + oniontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Breaks down during long simmering to thicken the soup and give it a creamy body.
Milk
Adds richness and a creamy texture to the soup base.
Soup stock
Provides the main liquid and savory flavor for the soup.
Onion
Contributes aromatic sweetness and depth as it softens in the liquid.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Low heat and regular stirring keep the milk from scorching on the bottom of the pot while the rice softens and thickens the soup gradually.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, rice. 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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