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Rice Soup

A light soup made with stock, rice, milk, and egg yolk, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Milk and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Rice Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the rice

  1. Boil the stock in a pot.

  2. Add the washed rice and simmer gently for about 30 minutes, or until the rice is thoroughly cooked.

  3. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve back into the pot.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the milk and bring to a boil.

  2. Beat the egg yolk with a little milk or cold stock.

  3. Let the soup cook slightly, then pour in the egg and stir until the soup thickens.

  4. Season to taste and serve.

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. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Egg + ricetop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,350 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

White second stock
Forms the main liquid and carries the soup's flavour.
Rice
Its starch softens and thickens the stock once cooked and sieved, giving body.
Milk
Adds fat and creaminess, softening the flavour of the soup.
Egg yolk
Its proteins set gently with heat, thickening the soup and enriching its texture.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk. Egg yolk proteins set when heated, so if the soup is too hot the egg will scramble and curdle instead of thickening it smoothly. Letting the soup cool slightly and stirring while pouring in the egg keeps the texture silky.

“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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