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Rice Milk

A warm beverage made by heating milk with ground rice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Rice Milk

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Rice Milk

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine ground rice and milk in a pot.

  2. Add cinnamon and nutmeg.

  3. Sweeten to your taste.

  4. Stir well and heat until warm, but do not boil.

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.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Rice + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground rice
Its starch thickens the milk as it warms, giving the drink a light body.
Milk
Forms the creamy liquid base and adds fat and milk sugars for richness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the milk and spices.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aroma and flavour to the milk.

The step that matters

Heat until warm, but do not boil. Milk scorches and can boil over at high heat, and it can taste burnt. Gentle heat with regular stirring keeps the milk smooth and lets the ground rice thicken evenly without sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, cinnamon, sugar):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, cinnamon, sugar. 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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