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Wheat Germ Mush

A mush made by boiling wheat germs in water, seasoned with salt, served with sugar, cream or milk, or syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Wheat Germ Mush

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place 1 quart of boiling water in the upper part of a double boiler, ensuring the lower part also has boiling water.

  2. Gradually sprinkle in 1 cup of wheat germs and add 1 teaspoon of salt.

  3. Stir constantly until the mixture boils.

  4. Cook for 20 minutes.

  5. Serve with sugar and cream or milk, or with syrup.

  6. Any leftover mush can be fried like cornmeal mush or hominy.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Cream + syruptop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Wheat + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together681 recipes

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

  5. Wheat + sugartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,071 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Wheat germs
Forms the thick porridge body as it cooks in the boiling water.

The step that matters

Sprinkling in the wheat germ gradually while stirring. Adding wheat germ slowly and stirring constantly keeps it dispersed in the hot water, preventing lumps as the starch and fibre absorb liquid and thicken the mixture.

“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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