Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Oatmeal Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jelly
Soak the oatmeal in 1½ pints of water overnight.
In the morning, strain the liquid through a sieve.
Boil the strained liquid for 15 minutes.
Pour it into molds and set in a cool place.
After 20 minutes, it will jelly and be ready to eat.
Serve
Serve with sugar and cream or sweetened fruit juice.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Oatmeal
- Its starches thicken the strained liquid as it boils, giving the jelly its body.
The step that matters
Strain the liquid well before boiling. Any oatmeal solids left in the liquid can cloud the jelly and change its smooth texture. Straining through a sieve removes them so the set is clear and even.
“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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