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A meal comprising oatmeal, buttermilk, boiled meat, potatoes, bread, barley, vegetables, and new milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and barley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 165 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Full Diet

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cook 2 pints of oatmeal in water until thickened.

  2. Stir in 1 pint of buttermilk before serving.

  3. Boil 6 oz of meat until tender.

  4. Boil 16 oz of potatoes until soft.

  5. Prepare broth with 1 oz barley, ½ oz vegetables, and 2 oz meat.

  6. Serve with 8 oz of bread.

  7. Serve 16 oz of potatoes with 10 oz of new milk for supper.

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. Potato + barleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together165 recipes

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

  2. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Bread + barleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together201 recipes

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

  5. Meat + barleytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together224 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oatmeal
Forms the main body of the dish as it thickens in water.
Buttermilk
Adds tang and creaminess when stirred into the cooked oatmeal.
Potatoes
Provide starch and bulk, softening as they boil.
Meat
Supplies protein and savoury flavour, made tender by boiling.
Barley
Adds body and a chewy texture to the broth.
New milk
Adds moisture and richness when served with the potatoes.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (buttermilk, meat, bread, barley, milk):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits less well
  4. Tomatofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against buttermilk, meat, bread, barley, milk. 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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