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Water-Gruel

A simple oatmeal gruel made by boiling water and adding oatmeal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Water-Gruel

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the water over a slow fire.

  2. Mix the oatmeal with enough cold water to make a liquid mixture.

Cook

  1. Add the oatmeal mixture to the boiling water before it gets very hot.

  2. Stir continuously until it boils.

  3. Let it simmer longer over a slow fire for better flavor.

  4. If too thick, add warm water.

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
Provides the starch that thickens the water into a gruel.
Water
Forms the liquid base that the oatmeal swells and thickens in.

The step that matters

Add the oatmeal mixture to the boiling water before it gets very hot. Oatmeal stirred into water that is still heating can clump before the starch disperses evenly. Adding it to already boiling water and stirring continuously helps the starch disperse 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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