Why it works: Rice and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,744 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Rice Water
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the rice thoroughly.
Cook the rice
In a saucepan, combine the rice and cold water.
Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer until the rice is fully cooked.
Strain and sweeten
Strain the mixture through a fine strainer back into the saucepan.
If the mixture is too thick, add a little more water and warm it thoroughly.
Sweeten with sugar or honey to taste.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 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
- Starch that cooks down and thickens the water, giving the drink body.
- Sugar or honey
- Adds sweetness to balance the plain starchy flavor.
“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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