Corn-meal Gruel
Ingredients
Directions
In a bowl, moisten the cornmeal with a little cold water.
Pour the moistened cornmeal into the boiling water.
Stir well and cook for about 10 minutes.
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
- Forms the thickened body of the gruel as its starch gelatinizes in hot water.
- Boiling water
- Hydrates the cornmeal and provides the liquid that the starch thickens.
The step that matters
Moisten the cornmeal before adding it to the boiling water. Dry cornmeal dropped into hot water clumps quickly, and the outer grains set before the inside hydrates. Wetting it first with cold water lets the grains disperse evenly so the gruel cooks smooth.
“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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