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Indian Meal Gruel

A simple gruel made by boiling water, stirring in cornmeal, and seasoning with salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Indian Meal Gruel

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. Boil 1 pint of water in a pot.

  2. Gradually stir in 2 tablespoons of cornmeal to avoid lumps.

  3. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring constantly until thickened.

  4. Add salt to taste before serving.

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

What each ingredient does

Cornmeal
Starch that swells in boiling water and thickens the gruel into a soft porridge.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the cornmeal. Adding cornmeal slowly while stirring separates the particles so they hydrate evenly. Dumping it in at once forms lumps that stay dry inside, and the starch cannot thicken the liquid evenly.

“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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