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 ↓
Frumenty
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the wheat
Place wheat in a stew pot with plenty of water and cover.
Bake in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until the wheat is soft.
Let it cool; it will set like jelly.
Make the porridge
In a pan, combine wheat and milk to achieve a rice milk consistency.
Stir constantly with a wooden spoon.
Mash the wheat to prevent burning.
When near boiling, stir in flour mixed with a little milk until smooth.
Add sugar, nutmeg, and salt.
Boil until ready.
For a richer version, thicken with beaten egg yolks mixed with milk instead of flour.
Add washed currants or Sultana raisins.
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.
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Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,623 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Wheat + nutmegtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together359 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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
- Wheat
- Forms the bulk of the porridge and softens into a thick, grain-based body when baked.
- Milk
- Provides liquid and creaminess, loosening the wheat into a smooth rice-milk consistency.
- Flour
- Thickens the porridge as it heats, giving it a smooth, stable body.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the mild, starchy flavour of the wheat.
The step that matters
Stirring and mashing while heating. The wheat and milk mixture sits on the bottom of the pan and scorches easily. Constant stirring and mashing keep it from sticking and burning, and adding the flour mixture near boiling prevents lumps from forming.
Swap the nutmeg
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, milk, flour, sugar, egg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegthe original
- Turmericfits less well
- Jalapenofits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, milk, flour, sugar, 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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