Name: Plum-porridge, or Barley-gruel
Ingredients: 1 gallon water; ½ pound barley; ¼ pound raisins, cleaned and washed; ¼ pound currants, washed and picked; 2-3 blades of mace; to taste sweetener; ½ pint white wine

Why it works: Raisin and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,180 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, creamy. The science ↓

Plum-porridge, or Barley-gruel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Combine the water and barley in a large pot.
Add the raisins and currants.

Cook and serve

Boil until the water reduces by more than half.
Add the mace and sweeten to taste.
Stir in the white wine before serving.

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.

Raisin + curranttop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,180 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).
Barley + raisintop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together57 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Currant + macetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,791 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Currant + white winetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together276 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Mace + white winetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,329 recipes

Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

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

What each ingredient does

Barley: Its starch thickens the water into a porridge as it simmers.
Raisins: Add sweetness and chewy texture to the porridge.
Currants: Add concentrated sweetness and chewy texture to the porridge.
White wine: Adds acidity and aroma to balance the sweet fruit.
Mace: Adds a warm, aromatic spice flavour.

The step that matters

Boiling until the water reduces by more than half. As liquid evaporates, the barley's starch thickens the porridge and the fruit's sugars concentrate. With less liquid left, the base can scorch, so keep the pot stirred and watch it closely.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (barley, raisin, currant, white wine):

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Clovefits better
Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against barley, raisin, currant, white wine. 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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Plum-porridge, or Barley-gruel