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Cracked Wheat

Cracked wheat is boiled or steamed and served with butter, syrup, cream, sugar, or milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cracked Wheat

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the wheat

  1. Boil 2 quarts of salted water in a custard kettle.

  2. Add 2 cups of wheat and boil for 2 to 3 hours.

  3. Alternatively, soak the wheat overnight and boil for at least 45 minutes.

  4. For steaming, stir the wheat into boiling water in a pan, then steam for 4 hours.

  5. For the sack method, moisten the wheat with cold water, add a little salt, and place it in a thick muslin sack.

  6. Fit a perforated tin sheet inside a kettle, place the sack on it, and add water to reach the tin.

  7. Boil for 3 to 4 hours, adding water as it evaporates.

Serve

  1. Serve with butter and syrup or cream and sugar.

  2. When cold, slice and fry or warm with milk and salt in a greased pan.

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. Wheat + milktop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Wheat
Forms the bulk of the dish; as it cooks, the grains soften and swell into a tender, porridge-like texture.
Salted water
Cooks the wheat grains and seasons them from within as they absorb it.

The step that matters

Keeping the wheat covered with water during the long boil. Wheat must stay submerged while it simmers for hours; if the water drops, the grains dry and scorch on the tin or pot, and they cook unevenly. Topping up with water keeps the grains moist so they soften fully.

“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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