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Breakfast

Cracked Wheat

A porridge made from cracked wheat, cooked until dry and served with butter, sugar or cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cracked Wheat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the cracked wheat in cold water overnight.

Cook and serve

  1. The next morning, cook in a double boiler until all the water evaporates.

  2. For a richer flavor, you can cook it all day.

  3. Serve with butter and sugar or cream.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Wheat + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together681 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

What each ingredient does

Cracked wheat
Starch that swells and thickens as it cooks, forming the body of the porridge.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the plain grain.
Cream
Adds fat and softness to the finished porridge.

The step that matters

Cook in a double boiler until all the water evaporates. Gentle, indirect heat from the double boiler prevents scorching on the bottom of the pot. Cooking slowly lets the wheat's starch swell fully and soften, so the porridge becomes creamy rather than gluey or burnt.

“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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