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Amaranth Atole

A traditional Mexican drink: atole. This recipe includes amaranth which is a grain famous for the high quality of its protein content.

By tastykitchen · From Open Recipes · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Amaranth and flour share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 22 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep5 min
Cook20 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: milk

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Pour the almond milk into a medium saucepan, add the cinnamon stick, and heat over medium heat until steaming, about 5 minutes.

  2. Place the amaranth flour in a bowl and whisk in a ladle of the warm milk until completely smooth with no lumps.

  3. Whisk the smooth mixture back into the saucepan, then stir in the sugar, including the extra tablespoon.

  4. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring often so it does not scorch, until thick and creamy.

  5. Remove the cinnamon stick, stir in the vanilla extract, and whisk well to combine.

  6. Ladle into bowls while hot and sprinkle each serving with puffed amaranth.

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Amaranth + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together22 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Cinnamon + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  4. Almond + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, cinnamon, sugar, vanilla, amaranth, flour):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Milletabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, cinnamon, sugar, vanilla, amaranth, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).