Why it works: Dates and cream work together. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 276 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓
Wheatena with Dates, Figs, Prunes, Etc
Ingredients
Directions
Make the porridge
Mix Wheatena, salt, dates, and cold water in a pot.
Gradually add boiling water while stirring.
Place the pot on the front of the range and boil for 5 minutes.
Finish and serve
Transfer to a double boiler and cook for 1 hour or more.
Serve with cream.
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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Dates + creamtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together276 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Wheatena
- Cereal base that thickens into a soft, porridge-like body as it cooks.
- Dates
- Add natural sweetness and chewy texture to the porridge.
The step that matters
Gradually add the boiling water while stirring. Adding the hot water slowly while stirring keeps the cereal from clumping into lumps, so it hydrates evenly and cooks into a smooth 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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