Traditional Gruel Gets Modern Day Makeover

For some, it's called oatmeal. For others, it's called porage. For still others, it's called mush. And yet for still others, it's called gruel. Gruel, a beverage or thin soup made from boiling grains in water or milk, has long been an important part of our diet.

Ask any experienced mom what the first solid food she introduced her children to was and she will most often reply rice cereal. And how was that rice grain prepared? Mixed with water or milk to produce a soupy consistency readily swallowed by infants. 

Gruel provides nourishment long after the bowl is empty. For this reason, I gladly added a little cereal to my children's formula at bedtime as the pediatrician suggested. A full tummy meant less late night feedings. A happy, sleeping baby inevitably meant a happy, sleeping mommy.

As my children's tummies became adjusted to the rice gruel over time, I introduced wheat gruel and oat gruel respectively. Soon after they were gulping down lovely servings of gruel to which I would swirl in a tablespoon or two of strained applesauce, bananas, peaches or plums. They loved their gruel and it was easy on my wallet!

Gruel has long been considered a means to stretch meager funds. In Colonial America, Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography wrote, "From my example, a great part of them left their muddling breakfast of beer and bread and cheese, finding they could with me be supplied from a neighboring house with a large porringer of hot water-gruel, sprinkled with pepper, crumbed with bread, and a bit of butter in it, for the price of a pint of beer, viz., three halfpence. This was a more comfortable as well as cheaper breakfast, and kept their heads clearer."