Name: Breakfast
Ingredients: 1 cup oatmeal or cracked wheat; 2 teaspoons sugar; 1 cup cream; rare steak or loin chops; 1 soft-boiled or poached egg; 2 slices cream toast; ½ pint milk; 1 small cup coffee

Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Breakfast

Ingredients

Directions

Cook oatmeal or cracked wheat according to package instructions.
Serve with sugar and cream.
Cook rare steak or loin chops to desired doneness.
Prepare a soft-boiled or poached egg.
Toast bread and spread with cream.
Pour milk into a glass and brew coffee.

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.

Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,202 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Wheat + coffeetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together105 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Cream + coffeetop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,339 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Oatmeal or cracked wheat: Provides the bulk of the porridge, giving it body as it absorbs water and softens.
Cream: Adds richness and fat, softening the flavour and giving a smooth mouthfeel.
Egg: Soft-boiled or poached, its runny yolk adds richness and moisture to the plate.
Steak or loin chops: Rare meat stays juicy and tender because it is cooked gently to a lower internal temperature.

“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.