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Wheaten Grits

A porridge made from cracked wheat boiled in water, seasoned with salt, and optionally served with cream or milk and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Wheaten Grits

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the cracked wheat in a little cold water for 1 hour.

Cook

  1. Stir the soaked wheat into the boiling water and boil for 1 hour, stirring often.

  2. Add salt to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve with cream or milk, and optionally add sugar.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Wheat + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together681 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Wheat + sugartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,071 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cracked wheat
Forms the body of the porridge as its starch swells and thickens in boiling water.
Boiling water
Hydrates the wheat and carries the heat that cooks and softens the grains.

The step that matters

Stirring the wheat into the boiling water. Adding the wheat gradually while stirring keeps the grains separated and prevents lumps. Stirring often during the hour-long boil keeps the grains from settling and sticking to the bottom of the pot, which can scorch.

“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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