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Water Gruel

A simple oatmeal gruel made by boiling water with oatmeal and sweetening and seasoning to taste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Water Gruel

Why it works: Nutmeg and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Water Gruel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oatmeal

  1. Decide if you want thick or thin gruel.

  2. For thick gruel, mix 2 tablespoons of oatmeal with a little cold water.

  3. For thin gruel, use 1 tablespoon of oatmeal.

Cook

  1. Boil 1 pint of water in a saucepan.

  2. Gradually stir the boiling water into the oatmeal mixture.

  3. Return the mixture to the saucepan.

  4. Boil until smooth, stirring to prevent burning.

  5. Skim the gruel.

  6. Strain the gruel through a sieve.

  7. Boil for 15 minutes for best results.

Season and serve

  1. Sweeten to taste.

  2. Season to taste.

  3. Add any desired flavorings.

  4. Serve with a small piece of dissolved butter, sweetened or seasoned as preferred.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Nutmeg + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Wine + mushroomtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

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

What each ingredient does

Oatmeal
Thickens the water into a gruel as its starch cooks and swells.
Water
Forms the liquid base that the oatmeal cooks and thickens in.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, fatty mouthfeel when served on the gruel.

The step that matters

Stirring in the boiling water. Adding the water gradually and stirring keeps the oatmeal from clumping into lumps. Stirring while it boils also prevents the starch from settling and scorching on the pan bottom.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, pepper, nutmeg, ginger, wine, spirit, mushroom):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, pepper, nutmeg, ginger, wine, spirit, mushroom. 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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