Skip to main content
Main

Cracked Wheat

A porridge of boiled cracked wheat served with butter, syrup, cream, or sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Cracked Wheat

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the wheat

  1. Boil 2 quarts of salted water in a custard kettle.

  2. Add 2 cups of wheat.

  3. Boil for 2 to 3 hours.

  4. Soak the wheat overnight.

  5. Boil for at least 45 minutes.

  6. Stir the wheat into boiling water in a pan.

  7. Set the pan in a steamer.

  8. Steam for 4 hours.

Steam in a sack

  1. Moisten the wheat with cold water.

  2. Add a little salt.

  3. Place the wheat in a strong muslin sack.

  4. Fit a perforated tin sheet inside a kettle.

  5. Place the sack on the tin sheet.

  6. Add water to reach the tin.

  7. Boil for 3 to 4 hours.

  8. Replenish water as needed.

Serve and fry

  1. Serve with butter and syrup or cream and sugar.

  2. Slice the cold wheat and fry.

  3. Warm with a little milk and salt in a greased pan.

  4. Mix with eggs, milk, a little flour, and a pinch of salt for griddle cakes.

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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Wheat
Forms the body of the porridge as its starch swells and sets during long cooking.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help the griddle cakes hold together and set when cooked.
Flour
Adds starch that helps the griddle cakes hold their shape and firm up.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness when the wheat is warmed and mixed into the cakes.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and flavor when served over the warm porridge.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the cream served with the porridge.

The step that matters

Replenish water as needed. The sack must stay surrounded by boiling water over the 3 to 4 hours. If the kettle boils dry, the wheat can scorch and cook unevenly.

“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.

You might also like

Wheat GruelWheat Gruel6 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes