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Cracked Wheat

A simple porridge made from cracked wheat boiled with water, salt, and butter, served with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cracked Wheat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the cracked wheat in cold water overnight.

  2. In the morning, drain the water.

Cook and serve

  1. Pour 2 cups of boiling water over the wheat and boil for about 30 minutes.

  2. Add salt and butter, and stir well.

  3. Serve with cream.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Wheat + creamtop 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

Cracked wheat
Forms the body of the porridge as its starch swells and softens during soaking and boiling.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the finished porridge.
Cream
Adds richness and a cool, creamy contrast when served on top.

The step that matters

Soaking the cracked wheat overnight. Soaking hydrates the grains before boiling, so they cook evenly and soften without staying hard in the center. Skipping or shortening the soak can leave the porridge unevenly textured.

“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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