Skip to main content
Main

Clear Soup, with Rice

A clear broth made from various meats, vegetables, and rice, finished with butter, egg yolk, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Clear Soup, with Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Wash the meat thoroughly.

  2. Place the meat in boiling water with salt.

  3. Skim the surface.

  4. Add potatoes, onions, or desired greens for flavor.

  5. Boil for 2 to 3 hours.

  6. Strain the broth.

Make the rice

  1. In a separate saucepan, boil rice in salted water until tender.

  2. Bake the rice in the oven until well done.

  3. Remove the rice from heat.

  4. Add butter, the egg yolk, and grated nutmeg to the rice. Stir well.

  5. Serve the rice in a dish alongside the soup, similar to mush and milk.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

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

  3. Potato + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together851 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  5. Potato + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,052 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

Meat
Releases flavor, proteins and gelatin into the water, giving the broth body and savoriness.
Rice
Absorbs liquid as it cooks, becoming soft and giving the dish its thick, mushy texture.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the rice, binding it into a smooth, creamy mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the rice.

The step that matters

Skim the surface of the broth. Foam and fat rising to the top carry coagulated proteins and impurities. Removing them early keeps the broth clear. Keeping it at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil stops particles from being stirred back in.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, potato, onion, rice, butter, egg):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, potato, onion, rice, butter, egg. 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.

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipes