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Spoon-meat

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,015 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Spoon-meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Set a pan of water on the fire.

  2. In a basin, mix oatmeal with cold water to achieve a proper consistency.

  3. When the water is hot (but not boiling), pour it over the oatmeal mixture and stir well.

  4. Remove the spoon and let it settle for about two minutes.

  5. Carefully pour the mixture into the pan, leaving the coarse part at the bottom of the basin.

  6. Set it on the fire, stirring until it boils.

  7. In five minutes, you will have excellent smooth gruel.

  8. Add salt only if serving with pepper and butter; sugar and nutmeg can be added if preferred.

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. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Sugar and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 23,364 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

Swap the nutmeg

The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pepper, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Cardamomfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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