Name: Frumenty , or Furmity, As It is Sometimes Called
Ingredients: 1 quart ready-boiled wheat; 2 quarts milk; ¼ pound currants or raisins, cleaned and washed; 3-4 egg yolks; ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; 2-3 tablespoons milk

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 ↓

Frumenty , or Furmity, As It is Sometimes Called

Ingredients

Directions

Combine the wheat, milk, and currants or raisins in a pot, then boil the mixture together.
In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with salt, nutmeg, and 2-3 tablespoons of milk.
Add the egg mixture to the wheat and stir well.

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.

Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,418 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
Wheat + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together359 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,685 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Milk + curranttop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,475 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
Currant + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,983 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

What each ingredient does

Wheat: Forms the body of the dish, giving it a thick, porridge-like texture.
Milk: Cooks with the wheat to create a soft, creamy base.
Egg yolks: Thicken the mixture as they set with heat, adding richness and a smooth texture.
Currants or raisins: Add sweetness and chewy bursts of fruit throughout the dish.

The step that matters

Adding the egg mixture to the wheat. Egg yolks thicken when heated, but if the hot wheat mixture is not stirred well while they go in, the yolks can scramble in lumps. Stirring steadily spreads the yolks evenly so the dish thickens smoothly.

Swap the currant

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

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Coconutfits better
Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, milk, egg, nutmeg. 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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Frumenty , or Furmity, As It is Sometimes Called