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Somersetshire Frumenty

A cold grain pudding of cracked wheat, milk, sugar, nutmeg, currants, and egg yolks.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the wheat base

  1. Cook the cracked wheat in water with a pinch of salt until soft.

  2. Add the milk and stir until thick like cream.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the mixture and add sugar and nutmeg to taste.

  2. Stir in the currants and cook until soft.

  3. Remove from heat and mix in the beaten egg yolks.

  4. Serve cold in a bowl for supper or lunch.

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

Cracked wheat
Forms the body of the dish as it softens and thickens with liquid.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess as the mixture thickens.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the mixture when stirred in gently off the heat.
Currants
Add sweetness and chewy fruitiness throughout the wheat.

The step that matters

Mix in the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat; if added over direct heat or while boiling, they can scramble and turn grainy. Removing the pan from heat first lets them enrich the mixture 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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