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Rice Soup or Milk

A warm rice soup made with water, rice, cinnamon, white wine, eggs, nutmeg, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 Soup or Milk

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice

  1. Combine water, rice, and cinnamon in a pot.

  2. Cover and simmer gently until rice is tender.

  3. Remove the cinnamon stick.

  4. Sweeten to taste and grate in nutmeg.

  5. Let it cool.

Finish the soup

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs with white wine until well mixed.

  2. Stir the egg mixture into the rice.

  3. Cook on low heat, stirring constantly to prevent curdling.

  4. Once thickened and boiling, remove from heat.

  5. Continue stirring until serving.

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

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

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Softens as it simmers, thickening the liquid and giving the soup body.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the soup as they set gently with heat, giving a creamy texture.
White wine
Adds acidity and a bright flavour that balances the sweetness and richness.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm aroma to the cooking liquid as it simmers with the rice.

The step that matters

Cook the egg mixture on low heat. Egg yolks can curdle if they get too hot or are left unstirred. Keeping the heat low and stirring constantly lets them thicken smoothly into the soup.

“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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