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Breakfast

Cream of Wheat

A hot cereal made from cream of wheat, water, salt, and dates.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and dates work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 69 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Cream of Wheat

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the cereal

  1. In a pot, bring 6 cups of water to a boil.

  2. Stir in 1 cup of cream of wheat cereal and 2 teaspoons of salt.

  3. Cook according to package instructions until thickened.

Finish and serve

  1. Just before serving, stir in the cut dates.

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. Wheat + datestop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together69 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Cream + wheattop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together681 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Cream + datestop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Cream of wheat cereal
Its starch swells in boiling water and thickens the mixture into a smooth porridge.
Dates
Add natural sweetness and a soft, chewy texture with pieces of fruit throughout.

The step that matters

Just before serving, stir in the cut dates. Dates are added at the end so they stay soft and in distinct pieces. Heating them for a long time in the thickening porridge can break them down and dull their texture.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, wheat):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, wheat. 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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