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Another. — Boil Up’ Half a Pint of Fine Gruel

A simple gruel boiled with butter, brandy, white wine, capillaire, lemon peel, and nutmeg, served warm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Another. — Boil Up’ Half a Pint of Fine Gruel

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil ½ pint of fine gruel.

  2. Add butter the size of a large nutmeg.

  3. Stir in brandy, white wine, capillaire, lemon peel, and nutmeg.

  4. Serve warm.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Brandy + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Brandy + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,311 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the warm gruel.
Brandy
Adds a warm, aromatic note that carries the flavour of the drink.
White wine
Adds acidity and a light fruity brightness to balance the richness.
Capillaire
Adds sweetness to round out the sharp and alcoholic flavours.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, brandy, white wine, lemon):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, brandy, white wine, lemon. 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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