Corn-meal Gruel
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
In a saucepan, bring 1 quart of boiling water to a slight simmer.
In a bowl, mix ¼ cup of corn-meal with ¼ cup of cold water until smooth.
Cook
Slowly add the corn-meal mixture to the boiling water, stirring constantly.
Boil the mixture rapidly for a few minutes.
Reduce heat and let it simmer for 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally, until thoroughly cooked.
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
- Corn-meal
- Provides the body and thickening starch that turn the water into a gruel.
- Water
- Hydrates the cornmeal so its starch can gelatinize and thicken the liquid.
The step that matters
Adding the cornmeal mixture to the boiling water. Pour it in slowly while stirring constantly so the starch disperses evenly instead of clumping into lumps that stay raw inside.
“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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