Skip to main content
Breakfast

Cracked Wheat

A simple porridge made by simmering cracked wheat in water until light and porous.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Cracked Wheat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a double boiler, bring water to a boil in the outer pot.

  2. Add boiling water to the inner pot.

Cook

  1. Stir in the cracked wheat and salt.

  2. Cover and cook for at least 3 hours until the grains are light and porous.

Breakfast

  1. For breakfast, cook the night before and reheat in the double boiler without removing from the inner pot.

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

Cracked wheat
Provides the grain body of the porridge, softening slowly into a tender, porous texture.
Boiling water
Hydrates the grains so they swell and soften during the long gentle cooking.

The step that matters

Cooking for at least 3 hours. Cracked wheat is tough and needs long, gentle, moist heat for starch to gelatinize and the grains to soften fully. Cutting the time short leaves the porridge firm and chalky. A double boiler keeps the heat low enough that the mixture cooks slowly without scorching.

“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

Rice GruelRice Gruel28 recipesPeptoned Milk GruelPeptoned Milk Gruel9 recipes