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Rice Soup, Italian Style

A simple Italian-style rice soup made with rice, onion, pork fat, chicken consommé, and served with grated Parmesan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pork and chicken match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Rice Soup, Italian Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Wash and parboil the rice, then immerse it in cold water and drain.

Make the soup

  1. In a saucepan, fry the onion and fat pork lightly without browning.

  2. Add the rice, season with salt and red pepper, and cook for 2 minutes while stirring.

  3. Add the chicken consommé and bring to a boil.

  4. Reduce heat and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

  5. Skim the soup and serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

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. Pork + chickentop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Rice + chickentop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Rice + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together879 recipes

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

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

Rice
Provides the body of the soup as its starch softens and thickens the broth.
Fat pork
Adds fat and savory flavor to the base as it renders into the onions.
White onion
Contributes sweetness and aroma as it softens in the fat without browning.
Chicken consommé
Forms the liquid base that the rice cooks in and carries the flavor of the soup.

The step that matters

Fry the onion and pork without browning. Keeping the onion and pork pale and gently softened avoids bitter, toasted flavors and keeps the soup's flavor clean and mild. Browning would change the taste the recipe intends.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, pork, pepper, chicken, parmesan cheese):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, pork, pepper, chicken, parmesan cheese. 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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