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Semolina, Savoury

A baked semolina dish with cheese, butter, mustard, spices, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Semolina, Savoury

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the semolina

  1. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Sprinkle in the semolina while stirring, and cook for 15 minutes.

  3. Add the cheese, butter, mustard, pepper, salt, and cayenne to taste.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a buttered gratin dish or several china scallop shells.

  2. Sprinkle liberally with breadcrumbs and cheese, and dot with small pieces of butter.

  3. Brown in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) and serve.

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

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

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cheese + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,426 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Semolina
Thickens the milk into a firm, spoonable mass that holds its shape when baked.
Milk
Cooks with the semolina to form the creamy base that softens as it bakes.
Grated cheese
Adds savory flavor and, when browned on top, a golden crust.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the top brown as it melts.
Made mustard
Adds a sharp, tangy note that balances the richness of the cheese and butter.

The step that matters

Cook the semolina for the full 15 minutes while stirring. Semolina must be stirred constantly as it thickens, or it can lump and scorch. Cooking it fully swells the starch so the mixture sets firmly rather than tasting raw or grainy.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (semolina, cheese, butter, pepper, milk):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against semolina, cheese, butter, pepper, milk. 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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