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Water Gruel

A simple oatmeal gruel made by mixing oatmeal with water, boiling, then seasoning with salt and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Water Gruel

Water Gruel

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gruel

  1. Rub the oatmeal smooth with the 2 tablespoons of water.

  2. Pour the mixture into 1 pint of boiling water.

  3. Stir well and boil quickly, ensuring it does not boil over.

  4. After 15 minutes, strain it off.

Serve

  1. Add salt and a bit of butter when serving, stirring until the butter is incorporated.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Oatmeal
Forms the body of the gruel, thickening the water as its starch cooks.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, silky mouthfeel to the finished gruel.

The step that matters

Rubbing the oatmeal smooth with water first. Mixing the oatmeal with cold water before adding it to boiling water helps prevent lumps, because the starch granules separate and disperse evenly instead of clumping on contact with heat.

“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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