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Rice Custard for Soup Garniture, Langtry Style

A creamy rice custard used as a garnish for soup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Rice Custard for Soup Garniture, Langtry Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Wash and parboil the rice for 3 minutes, then drain it.

  2. Combine the rice and milk in a saucepan.

  3. Season with salt, sugar, and nutmeg.

  4. Cover and cook slowly until thoroughly done.

  5. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

  6. Strain through a napkin.

Make the custard

  1. Dilute the egg yolks in cream and almond milk.

  2. Add the mixture to the rice mixture.

  3. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and nutmeg.

  4. Grease small round charlotte moulds.

  5. Fill the moulds with the custard.

Poach and serve

  1. Place the moulds in a flat saucepan with water to poach.

  2. Remove the moulds once cooked.

  3. Let the custard cool.

  4. Slice the custard before adding to soup.

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. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Rice + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,779 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Cooks down and rubbed smooth to give the custard its body and creamy texture.
Egg yolks
Set during gentle poaching to give the custard its firm, tender structure.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, softening the set custard for a smoother mouthfeel.
Milk
Cooks with the rice to form a creamy base and add moisture.

The step that matters

Place the moulds in a flat saucepan with water to poach. Egg yolks set when heated gently; if the water boils or the heat is too high, the custard can curdle or turn grainy and full of holes. Gentle, even heat gives a smooth, firm set.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, sugar, nutmeg, egg, cream, pepper):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits about as well
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, sugar, nutmeg, egg, cream, pepper. 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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