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Rice Soup

A broth of veal and ham with rice, seasoned with white pepper and mace.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: White pepper and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,695 recipes. Both carry myrcene, which smells balsamic, herbaceous. The science ↓

Rice Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Boil the neck of veal and ham in 4 quarts of water until reduced by half, skimming carefully.

  2. Season with white pepper and mace.

  3. Strain the broth.

Cook the rice

  1. In the strained broth, boil the washed rice until tender.

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. White pepper + macetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,695 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  2. Veal + hamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,264 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Ham + ricetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together477 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Mace + ricetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together932 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. Veal + macetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,761 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Neck of veal
Releases gelatin and flavour into the broth, giving body to the soup.
Lean ham
Adds savoury, meaty flavour to the broth.
Rice
Thickens the soup as its starch softens and swells during boiling.

The step that matters

Skimming while the broth reduces. Scum and fat rise to the surface as the meat simmers. Removing them keeps the broth clear and free of greasy, off flavours as it reduces by half.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, ham, mace, rice):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, ham, mace, rice. 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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