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Rice Caudle

A thickened rice soup made with water, rice, sugar, lemon peel, cinnamon, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Rice Caudle

Why it works: Rice and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,137 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Rice Caudle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the water in a pot.

  2. Mix the grated rice with a little cold water.

Cook

  1. Pour the rice mixture into the boiling water and stir until it reaches a proper consistency.

  2. Add sugar, lemon peel, cinnamon, and brandy.

  3. Boil until smooth.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Rice + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,366 recipes

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

  5. Cinnamon + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Sugar and cinnamon 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

Grated rice
Its starch swells and thickens the liquid as it heats, giving the caudle body.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the warm spices and brandy.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor.
Lemon peel
Adds bright citrus aroma and flavor.
Brandy
Adds aroma and rich flavor to the warm drink.

The step that matters

Pour the rice mixture into the boiling water while stirring. Raw rice starch clumps when it hits hot liquid without being dispersed first. Stirring as you pour spreads the starch evenly, so it swells and thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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