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Rice Milk

A warm beverage made by boiling ground rice with milk, spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, and sweetened to taste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Rice Milk

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 Milk

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, combine the ground rice and milk.

  2. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.

  3. Add lemon peel, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

  4. Cook until nearly done, then sweeten to taste.

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. 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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Ground rice
Its starch thickens the milk as it simmers, giving the drink body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base and adds richness and body from its fat and proteins.
Sugar
Adds sweetness, added at the end so the taste can be adjusted.
Cinnamon
Contributes warm, aromatic flavour.
Nutmeg
Contributes warm, aromatic flavour.
Lemon peel
Adds bright citrus aroma that lifts the warm spices.

The step that matters

Stir while bringing the milk to a boil. Ground rice is heavy and settles on the bottom of the pot, where it can scorch. Stirring keeps the starch suspended and heats it evenly, so the mixture thickens smoothly and the milk does not burn or boil over.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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