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Corn Starch Gruel

A thickened milk gruel made with corn starch, salt, nutmeg, and optional sugar or citrus.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Norton, Caroline Trask · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,955 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓

Corn Starch Gruel

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gruel

  1. Scald two cups of milk in a double boiler.

  2. Mix a tablespoonful of corn starch with a little cold milk and an eighth of a teaspoonful of salt.

  3. Stir into the hot milk and cook for twenty minutes, stirring frequently.

  4. If too thick, add a little hot milk.

  5. Flavor with a little sugar and nutmeg, or lemon or orange juice.

Variation

  1. Make Arrowroot Gruel the same as corn starch.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

616Calories
21 gProtein
10 gFat
108 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Norton, Caroline Trask. 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. See the original page.

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. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  2. Corn + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Forms the liquid base that the starch thickens into a smooth gruel.
Corn starch
Thickens the milk as its starch granules swell when heated, giving the gruel body.

The step that matters

Stir into the hot milk and keep stirring. Starch added to hot liquid can clump if it is not dispersed first, so it is mixed with cold milk beforehand. Frequent stirring during cooking keeps the starch suspended and heats it evenly, so it thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps or scorching on the bottom.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, corn):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Basilfits about as well
  4. Cuminfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, corn. 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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