Skip to main content
Main

Cornmeal Gruel

A simple cornmeal gruel made by boiling cornmeal in water, then adding cream or milk and salt.

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

Cornmeal Gruel

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Stir 3 tablespoons of cornmeal into 1 quart of boiling water.

  2. Boil for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

  3. Add ½ pint of cream or milk and salt to taste.

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

Cornmeal
Its starch swells and sets during boiling, thickening the liquid into a gruel.
Cream or milk
Adds richness and a softer, smoother texture to the thickened gruel.

The step that matters

Boil for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Cornmeal starch needs sustained heat to fully swell and thicken the liquid. Occasional stirring keeps the cornmeal suspended and reduces sticking and scorching on the bottom of the pot.

“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