Name: Peptonised Gruel
Ingredients: wheaten flour; oatmeal; arrowroot; sago; pearl barley; pea flour; lentil flour; Liquor pancreaticus

Why it works: Flour and arrowroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 525 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Peptonised Gruel

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the chosen flour (wheaten, oatmeal, etc.) in water until thick and strong.
Pour the gruel into a covered jug and cool to about 140°F (60°C).
Add 1 tablespoon of Liquor pancreaticus for every pint of gruel.
Keep the jug warm under a cozy for a couple of hours.
Afterward, boil the mixture and strain it.

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.

Flour + arrowroottop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together525 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Arrowroot + barleytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together36 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Flour + barleytop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together582 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).