Skip to main content
Main

Creamed Gruel

A warm oat gruel thickened with cream, eggs, and milk, flavored with nutmeg or vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Creamed Gruel

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 180°F (82°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the gruel

  1. Cook the rolled oats in the water until soft.

  2. Strain the cooked oats through a sieve.

  3. Add the cream and salt.

  4. Heat the mixture until scalded.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg whites to stiff froth.

  2. Whip the beaten egg whites into the gruel.

  3. Sweeten to taste.

  4. Flavor with nutmeg or vanilla extract.

  5. Heat the milk to 180°F (82°C).

  6. Mix the beaten egg with the cold water.

  7. Stir the mixture into the hot milk.

  8. Stir constantly until thickened, but do not let it boil again.

  9. Season with salt or loaf sugar if preferred.

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

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Oats + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together588 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Oats + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,119 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  5. Nutmeg + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff froth, they add lightness and airy body to the gruel.
Egg
Thickens the milk mixture as it heats, giving a smooth, creamy set.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving a softer, silkier mouthfeel.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding creaminess and body.
Rolled oats
Cooked and strained to give the gruel its base body and flavor.

The step that matters

Stir constantly until thickened, but do not let it boil again.. Egg proteins thicken gently as they heat, but past boiling they curdle and turn grainy, so the custard can split if it overheats.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oats, cream, egg, milk, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Peppermintfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against oats, cream, egg, milk, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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