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Water Gruel

A simple oatmeal gruel made by stirring oatmeal into water and boiling.

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

Water Gruel

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Gradually add the oatmeal to the water while stirring to make it smooth.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

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
Thickens the water as its starches swell and gelatinize when heated, giving the gruel body.

The step that matters

Adding the oatmeal gradually while stirring. Oatmeal dropped in all at once clumps, and the outside of each clump hydrates before the inside, leaving lumps. Adding it slowly while stirring lets each grain disperse evenly so the gruel stays smooth as it heats and thickens.

“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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