Name: Rice Gruel
Ingredients: 2 tablespoons rice; 1 quart cold water; a little cream; salt to taste

Why it works: Rice and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,399 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Rice Gruel

Ingredients

2 tablespoons rice
1 quart cold water
a little cream
salt to taste

Directions

Make the porridge

Combine rice and cold water in a pot.
Steep slowly for one hour.
Strain the mixture through a fine strainer.

Finish

Stir in a little cream and salt 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.

Rice + creamtop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,399 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Rice: Provides the starch that gives the porridge its body and thickness.
Cold water: Carries the rice's flavour and starch, forming the liquid base of the porridge.
Cream: Adds fat and richness, softening the flavour and giving a smoother mouthfeel.

“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.