Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Milk Porridge
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.
Cook the raisins
Boil the quartered raisins in a little water for 20 minutes.
Let the water boil away, then add the milk.
Thicken and finish
When boiling, mix the flour with a little cold milk to make a thin paste and add it to the pot.
Boil for 8 to 10 minutes.
Season with salt and strain before serving.
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.
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Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together9,075 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Raisin + milktop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,155 recipes
Shared aroma: decanoic acid (acides aroma).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Raisins
- Add sweetness and a fruity flavour as they soften and release their sugars into the liquid.
- Milk
- Forms the creamy base of the porridge and adds richness and body.
- Flour
- Thickens the liquid as its starch swells and sets when it boils.
The step that matters
Mixing the flour into a paste before adding it. Flour lumps if it goes into hot liquid dry. Stirring it into a little cold milk first spreads the starch evenly, and boiling then swells the starch so the porridge thickens smoothly.
“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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