Why it works: Milk and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Common Flummery
Ingredients
Directions
Put the oatmeal in a broad, deep pan and cover it with water.
Stir well and let it stand for twelve hours.
Pour off the clear water and add fresh water, repeating the process for another twelve hours.
Stir in a little fresh water and strain the oatmeal through a coarse sieve.
Boil the strained oatmeal until very thick, stirring constantly.
Once it reaches the proper consistency, pour it out and let it cool.
When cold, turn it out onto plates and serve with wine, cider, beer, milk, or cream and sugar.
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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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
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