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Bice Gruel, a Bemedy Fob Belaxed Bowels

A rice gruel with orange peel or cinnamon, sweetened with sugar and flavored with brandy, used as a remedy for bloated bowels.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,067 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Bice Gruel, a Bemedy Fob Belaxed Bowels

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice

  1. Boil the rice in water very gently for about an hour in a covered saucepan on the side of the hob.

  2. Ensure the rice is thoroughly cooked and looks as if the grains have dissolved.

  3. Add the orange peel or cinnamon while boiling.

Sweeten and serve

  1. Sweeten the gruel with loaf sugar.

  2. Stir in the brandy before serving.

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. Rice + orangetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Rice + brandytop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together378 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Rice
Breaks down during long gentle boiling to thicken the water into a smooth porridge.
Water
Cooks the rice and, as it reduces, carries the starch that gives the gruel its body.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the mild flavour of the cooked rice.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm flavour when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Cook the rice very gently until the grains dissolve. Rapid boiling can scorch the bottom or leave grains whole and unevenly textured. Slow simmering in a covered pan lets the starch release steadily, so the grains break down and thicken the liquid into a smooth gruel.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, sugar, 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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