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Furmenty with Stewed Raisins

A dish of cracked wheat cooked with water, served topped with warm stewed raisins, sugar, cinnamon, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Furmenty with Stewed Raisins

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Cook the wheat

  1. Combine furmenty and water in a pot.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes.

Prepare and serve

  1. Heat stewed raisins with sugar, cinnamon, and salt until warm.

  2. Serve the furmenty topped with the warm stewed raisins.

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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Wheat + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together537 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Wheat + raisintop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together163 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon 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

Furmenty (cracked wheat)
Forms the body of the dish, softening as it simmers into a tender porridge.
Stewed raisins
Add moisture and concentrated fruit sweetness on top of the wheat.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the tartness of the raisins.

The step that matters

Simmering the wheat until tender. Cracked wheat needs enough time in water to hydrate and soften fully. Stopping early leaves a firm, gritty texture, while the gentle simmer keeps the grains from breaking apart and turning gluey.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, sugar, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinthe original
  3. Blueberryfits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, sugar, cinnamon. 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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