Corn Meal Gruel
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
In a large pot, bring 3 quarts of water to a boil.
In a separate cup, mix the cornmeal with cold water until smooth.
Cook
Stir the cornmeal mixture into the boiling water.
Reduce heat and let it boil slowly for 35 minutes.
Remove from heat and add salt to taste.
For young children, strain through a cloth to remove lumps if necessary.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Corn meal
- Forms the thickened body of the gruel as its starch gelatinizes in boiling water.
- Water
- Provides the liquid that the cornmeal starch swells and thickens in.
The step that matters
Mixing the cornmeal with cold water before adding it to the boil. Cornmeal clumps when dropped into hot liquid because its outer starch gelatinizes at once and seals the inside. Mixing it smooth in cold water first lets the grains disperse evenly, so the gruel cooks without lumps.
“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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