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Breakfast

Cream of Wheat

A porridge made from Cream of Wheat and milk, served with stewed prunes and toast, accompanied by a glass of milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cream of Wheat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the porridge

  1. Combine Cream of Wheat and milk in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over medium heat, stirring until thickened.

Serve

  1. Serve topped with stewed prunes.

  2. Toast the bread.

  3. Serve toast alongside.

  4. Pour a glass of milk to 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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + wheattop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together681 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cream of wheat
Thickens with heat into a smooth, soft porridge that gives the dish its body.
Milk
Cooks with the Cream of Wheat to add moisture and a creamy, mellow flavour.
Prunes
Stewed prunes add sweetness and a soft, fruity topping.

The step that matters

Cook over medium heat, stirring until thickened. Cream of Wheat can scorch or form lumps if heated too fast or left unstirred. Gentle heat with constant stirring lets the starch hydrate and swell evenly, giving a smooth, thick porridge.

“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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