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Rice Soup

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

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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, combine water, rice, and cinnamon.

  2. Cover and simmer gently until the rice is tender.

  3. Remove the cinnamon stick.

  4. Sweeten the soup to your taste and add grated nutmeg.

Add the eggs

  1. Let it cool.

  2. Beat the egg yolks with white wine until well mixed.

  3. Stir the egg mixture into the cooled rice soup.

  4. Place on low heat, stirring constantly to prevent curdling.

  5. Cook until the soup thickens and begins to boil.

Serve

  1. Serve immediately.

  2. Continue stirring until served.

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. Nutmeg + eggtop 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
Its starch releases during simmering, giving the soup its body and soft texture.
Egg yolks
Their proteins set gently on low heat, thickening the soup and adding richness.
White wine
Adds acidity and a light, fruity note that balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness, adjusted to the cook's taste.

The step that matters

Adding the egg mixture to the soup. Egg yolks curdle if they get too hot too fast. Stirring the cooled soup constantly over low heat lets the yolks thicken it smoothly instead of scrambling.

“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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