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Wheat and Raisins

A soaked wheat and raisin porridge cooked slowly, sweetened with milk and sugar, served with brown bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Wheat and Raisins

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the wheat

  1. Soak the wheat in 2 quarts of water for 12 hours.

Stew and finish

  1. Stew the soaked wheat in a stone jar in the oven at 300°F (150°C) for 12 hours, stirring occasionally.

  2. Mix in the raisins.

  3. Add milk and sugar to taste.

  4. Serve with brown bread.

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 + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (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).

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

What each ingredient does

Wheat
Forms the thick body of the porridge as its starch swells and softens during long stewing.
Raisins
Add sweetness and chewy texture that contrast with the soft wheat.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the finished porridge.
Sugar
Adds sweetness, balancing the mild flavour of the wheat.

The step that matters

Long, gentle stewing of the soaked wheat. Wheat needs prolonged moist heat so its starch gelatinizes and the grains soften fully. Stirring occasionally helps prevent sticking and scorching on the base of the jar.

Swap the raisin

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, milk, sugar, bread. 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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