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Milk Porridge

A warm porridge made from groats or oatmeal cooked with water, cinnamon, milk, sugar, nutmeg, and optional butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Milk Porridge

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine groats or oatmeal with water and cinnamon in a pot.

  2. Bring to a boil.

  3. Once thickened, remove from heat and stir in whole milk without boiling.

  4. Add sugar and nutmeg to taste.

  5. If desired, stir in cold butter for a smoother texture.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Groats or oatmeal
Provides the starch and bulk that thicken the porridge as it cooks.
Whole milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the porridge.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the grain flavour.
Cold butter
Adds fat that makes the finished texture smoother and glossier.

The step that matters

Stir in the milk without boiling. Milk proteins can scorch on the pot base and turn grainy or skin over when boiled, so it is added off the heat after the porridge has thickened.

“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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