Name: Rice Soup a LA Maintenon
Ingredients: 1 quart of broth; 1 pint of béchamel sauce; 1 tablespoon of coarse sea salt; 1 teaspoon of black pepper; ½ raw chicken; 2 beaten egg yolks; 1 teaspoon of powdered curry; ½ cup of cream; 2 tablespoons of boiled rice

Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Rice Soup a LA Maintenon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

In a saucepan, combine broth, béchamel sauce, salt, and pepper.
Add the raw chicken and cook for 20 minutes.
Remove the chicken and thicken the soup with beaten egg yolks and curry mixed with cream.
Rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

Serve

Serve the soup with boiled rice and pieces of the cooked chicken.

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.

Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,769 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + chickentop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,958 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Sauce + ricetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,396 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Broth: Forms the liquid base of the soup.
Béchamel sauce: Adds body and a creamy, smooth texture to the soup.
Beaten egg yolks: Thicken the soup as they heat, giving it a richer, silkier body.
Cream: Adds fat and richness, softening the flavour and texture of the soup.
Raw chicken: Cooks in the broth to flavour the soup and provides meat for serving.
Boiled rice: Adds bulk and a soft, starchy texture when served with the soup.

The step that matters

Thicken the soup with egg yolks. Egg yolks set when heated, so the soup must be warm, not boiling, while stirring them in. If it boils, the yolks can scramble and turn grainy instead of giving a smooth, thick texture.

“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.

Chicken Broth257 recipes

Chicken Soup156 recipes

Creamed Chicken89 recipes

Rice Fritters84 recipes

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Rice Soup a LA Maintenon