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Oatmeal Gruel No. 2

A simple oatmeal gruel made by washing coarse oatmeal, boiling the liquid, and optionally adding cream or milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Oatmeal Gruel No. 2

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the oats

  1. Pound the oatmeal in a coarse cloth with a wooden mallet until mealy.

  2. In a pint bowl, fill with cold water and stir briskly until the water is white.

  3. Allow the meal to settle, then pour off the water without disturbing the sediment, and repeat this process two more times.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the remaining liquid for 30 minutes, strain, and serve hot.

  2. Add a little cream or milk if desired.

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

Oatmeal
Its starch thickens the liquid as it cooks, giving the porridge its body and texture.

The step that matters

Pour off the water only after the meal has fully settled. Disturbing the sediment stirs fine particles back into the liquid, so each wash removes less of the starchy fines and the porridge turns out cloudier.

“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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