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Cream of Rice, Langtry Style

A creamy rice soup with chicken, vegetables, and a velvety sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Cream of Rice, Langtry Style

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the rice

  1. Wash the rice.

  2. Put the rice in a saucepan with cold water. Boil for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  3. Immerse the rice in cold water and drain it.

  4. Return the rice to a saucepan with chicken broth.

Make the soup

  1. Season the rice with salt, nutmeg, and pepper.

  2. Add parsley, leeks, carrot, onion, and cloves.

  3. Add the chicken, cover, and cook on low heat until done.

  4. Remove the chicken, parsley, carrot, and onion.

  5. Add cream sauce to the rice.

  6. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve.

  7. Dilute with chicken broth to desired consistency.

  8. Keep the soup warm in a hot water bath until ready to serve.

Finish and serve

  1. Pound the breast of two braised chickens into a fine paste.

  2. Mix the paste with butter and egg yolks.

  3. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve.

  4. Combine the mixture with cream in a saucepan.

  5. Slowly add the soup while stirring briskly with a whisk. Do not let it boil to prevent curdling.

  6. Serve garnished with asparagus tops or pearl barley.

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 + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Leek + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,310 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Leek + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Thickens the soup as its starch breaks down, giving the body of a cream of rice soup.
Chicken broth
Provides the main savory liquid and flavour base for the soup.
Cream sauce
Adds richness and body, smoothing the texture of the soup.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel in the finished soup.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the soup, adding body and smoothness.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the finished soup.

The step that matters

Adding the soup to the egg yolk and cream mixture. Egg yolks thicken when heated but curdle if they get too hot. Adding the soup slowly while whisking and keeping the mixture from boiling keeps it smooth.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, chicken, pepper, parsley, leek, carrot, onion):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, chicken, pepper, parsley, leek, carrot, onion. 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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