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Cornmeal Gruel

A simple cornmeal gruel made by adding cornmeal to boiling water and seasoning with salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Cornmeal Gruel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wet the cornmeal in cold water.

  2. In a gruel pan, have boiling water ready.

Cook

  1. Dip a spoonful of the cornmeal mixture into the boiling water and stir.

  2. Continue adding spoonfuls until the gruel reaches the desired consistency.

  3. Boil briskly for 20 minutes or more.

  4. Add 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
Starch that thickens the liquid into a smooth gruel as it cooks.

The step that matters

Adding the cornmeal in spoonfuls. Cornmeal dropped into hot water all at once forms lumps, because the outer starch swells and seals off the dry inside. Adding a wet, dispersed mixture a spoonful at a time, while stirring, lets the starch spread evenly and thicken smoothly.

“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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