Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Cereal and Cereal Gruels
Ingredients
Directions
Spread the grains on a clean table and remove any foreign substances.
Wash the whole grains with two or three changes of cold water.
Fill the lower part of a double boiler one-third full with water and bring it to a boil.
Add salt to the boiling water.
Gradually stir in the cereal to prevent burning.
Steam the mixture in the double boiler until thoroughly cooked, about 10-15 minutes for initial cooking and up to 3 hours for oatmeal.
If desired, thin the cooked cereal with water, milk, or cream.
Serve the gruel very hot.
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.
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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