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Vermicelli Porridge

A milk-based porridge made with vermicelli, salt, cream, and castor sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Vermicelli Porridge

Ingredients

Directions

Make the porridge

  1. Boil the milk in a pot.

  2. Add the vermicelli and stir well to combine.

  3. Cook slowly for 30 minutes, stirring frequently.

  4. Add a pinch of salt.

Serve

  1. Serve like oatmeal porridge with cream and castor sugar.

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

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

  2. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Vermicelli
Thickens the milk as its starch softens during slow cooking, giving the porridge body.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the vermicelli cooks in, adding richness and creaminess.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness to the finished porridge, balancing the mild milk flavour.

The step that matters

Cook slowly for 30 minutes, stirring frequently. Milk scorches easily on the bottom of a pot. Frequent stirring and gentle heat keep it from burning and help the vermicelli soften evenly and thicken the 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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