Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Cracked Wheat
Ingredients
Directions
Stir the crushed white wheat into the boiling water.
Place the tin pan in a pan of boiling water and boil for 20 minutes.
Add salt to taste; the dish is done when the kernels swell and burst.
For a sweet breakfast dish, add cinnamon, cloves, raisins, and sugar while boiling.
Serve plain in saucers with a dusting of cinnamon, and add butter or cream if desired.
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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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,390 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Wheat + cinnamontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together537 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).
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Clove + raisintop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,070 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Crushed white wheat
- Forms the main body of the dish as its kernels swell and soften during boiling.
- Raisins or currants
- Add chewy pockets of sweetness and moisture to the cooked grain.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to the dish when used in the optional sweet version.
The step that matters
Boiling until the kernels swell and burst. The wheat must cook long enough for starch in the kernels to gelatinize and soften fully. Stopping early leaves the grain firm and chalky, while the kernels bursting shows the starch has absorbed water and cooked through.
“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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