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Oatmeal with Sugar and Cream

A simple hot oatmeal cooked with water, rolled oats, sugar, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Oatmeal with Sugar and Cream

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

  1. Bring water to a boil in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in rolled oats and reduce heat.

  3. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  4. Serve hot, topped with sugar and 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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Oats + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,548 recipes

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

  3. Oats + creamtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together634 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Rolled oats
Swell in the hot water and thicken into a creamy, porridge-like texture.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel to the finished porridge.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the plain, earthy flavour of the oats.

The step that matters

Stirring occasionally while the oats cook. Oats settle and scorch on the bottom of the pan if left alone, and stirring keeps the starch dispersed so the porridge cooks evenly and becomes smooth rather than lumpy.

“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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