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A diet meal consisting of oatmeal porridge, boiled meat, potatoes, bread, broth, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Extra Diet

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare oatmeal porridge using 2 pints of water and 6 oz of buttermilk.

  2. Boil 8 oz of meat until cooked through.

  3. Peel and boil 20 oz of potatoes until tender.

Make broth and serve

  1. Serve with 3 oz of bread.

  2. Make broth by simmering 1 oz of barley, ½ oz of vegetables, and 2 oz of meat in 1 pint of water.

  3. Serve 15 oz of new milk as a drink.

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 thick porridge base and gives it body as its starch swells in water.
Buttermilk
Adds moisture and a slight tang to the porridge.
Potatoes
Supply starch and bulk, softening as they cook until tender.
Meat
Provides protein and substance, becoming firm and fully cooked when boiled through.
Barley
Adds body and starch to the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Boil the meat until cooked through. Meat must reach a temperature that fully cooks it for safety and tenderness. Stopping early leaves it undercooked, while overcooking toughens the proteins and makes it dry and stringy.

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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