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Porridge, Rice and Barley

A porridge made from rice and Scotch barley, boiled and served with optional milk, cream, pepper, salt, brown sugar, treacle, or jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and barley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 568 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Porridge, Rice and Barley

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the rice and Scotch barley thoroughly in boiling water.

Cook

  1. Strain and boil gently in water for 3 to 4 hours.

  2. Strain again and boil in a little milk for a short time before serving.

Finish and serve

  1. Add cream for improvement if desired.

  2. Flavor with pepper and salt.

  3. Serve with brown sugar, treacle, or jam.

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. Rice + barleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together568 recipes

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

  2. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Barley + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together897 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rice
Breaks down during long simmering to give the porridge its thick, soft body.
Scotch barley
Releases starch as it simmers, adding thickness and a chewy, hearty texture.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess and softens the flavor of the cooked grains.

The step that matters

Simmering gently for 3 to 4 hours. A gentle simmer lets the rice and barley soften and release starch slowly. Boiling hard can scorch the bottom and make the texture uneven.

“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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