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Somersetshire Frumenty

A wheat and milk porridge with sugar, nutmeg, currants, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

Somersetshire Frumenty

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the wheat

  1. Bruise the wheat thoroughly and place it in a stone jar.

  2. Pour the water over the wheat and bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) until soft, about 4 hours.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, combine the new milk and enough pulped wheat to achieve a thick cream consistency.

  2. Stir in the sugar, nutmeg, and currants, then heat the mixture until the currants are soft.

  3. Remove from heat and add the beaten egg yolks mixed with 2 tablespoons of milk. Stir over low heat for a few minutes, but do not let it boil.

Serve

  1. Serve in a deep dish.

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 + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Wheat + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together359 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Nutmeg + curranttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,983 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Wheat
Forms the bulk of the dish, softening during baking to a thick, pulpy base.
New milk
Provides moisture and richness, creating the creamy body of the mixture.
Eggs
Thicken the mixture as they set gently with heat, giving it a custard-like texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the grain and spice flavours.
Currants
Add sweetness and fruity flavour, softening as the mixture is heated.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks off the heat, then stirring over low heat without boiling. Egg proteins set and can curdle or scramble if the mixture gets too hot. Removing it from the heat before adding the yolks and keeping the heat low lets them thicken it smoothly.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, milk, sugar, nutmeg, egg. 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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