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Breakfast

Arrowroot Milk Porridge

A thin porridge of arrowroot, milk, sugar and salt, served warm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Arrowroot and milk work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 817 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Arrowroot Milk Porridge

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wet the arrowroot to a paste with cold water.

  2. Put the sugar into the milk.

  3. Put the salt into the boiling water, which should be poured into a farina kettle.

Cook

  1. Add the wet arrowroot and boil, stirring constantly until it is clear.

  2. Put in the milk and cook ten minutes, stirring often.

Serve

  1. Serve while warm, adding hot milk should it be thicker than gruel.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

198Calories
8 gProtein
8 gFat
25 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 5 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0
Arrowrootnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Arrowroot + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together817 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  2. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Arrowroot + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,073 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

What each ingredient does

Arrowroot
Thickens the porridge into a smooth, clear gel as it boils.
Milk
Adds body, richness and a soft, creamy texture to the porridge.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the mild flavour of the porridge.

The step that matters

Add the wet arrowroot and boil, stirring constantly until it is clear. Arrowroot starch thickens quickly once heated and can clump or scorch on the bottom if left unstirred. Constant stirring keeps the starch dispersed so it thickens evenly and turns clear.

Swap the arrowroot

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Arrowrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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