Skip to main content
Main

Backer Gruel

A simple gruel made by mixing boiling water, powdered crackers, milk, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Backer Gruel

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pour ½ cup of boiling water over 4 tablespoons of powdered cracker.

  2. Add 1 pint of milk and ½ teaspoon of salt.

  3. Stir the mixture until it comes to a boil.

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.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Powdered cracker
Thickens the liquid as its starch absorbs water and swells, giving the gruel body.
Milk
Adds liquid and richness, forming the base of the gruel.

“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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes