What is Gruel?
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- Опубліковано 13 чер 2022
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#tastinghistory #gruel
I like how this channel includes the history of ordinary people rather than exclusively nobles and kings.
or movie stars. That's where the History Channel went all wrong.
@@lesterstone8595 Max does Commoners, Nobles, King, and movie stars 🙂
It really takes effort, too, since most of the cookbooks and other records that survive were relevant only to monks or nobility.
Who would've thought that peasants also eat
A great rebuttal of the typical “Great Persons” theory so many people want to apply to history
The reason Oliver Twist asks for some more gruel is that the portions were too small for a growing child. It was quite common in those days to feed people according to the amount of work they did. This meant that young children and sick people received very little food, which resulted in starvation and more illness.
Maybe they should work harder.
@@bobjohnson1633the children yearn for the mines. ⛏️
You mean Oliver wasnt just being greedy?
@@davefletch3063 What a... Twist😮
Also what I sensed.. he was just hungry
Pleading for food, out of sheer hunger 😔
I 've wondered what gruel was for years! Now it makes sense, its a ground grain soup. Grind rice = congee, grind oats = gruel, grind corn = grits.
Except gruel is whole oats cut not ground - which is why he said “steel cut oats”
The recipe he quotes states oatmeal. This is finally ground porridge oats.
Am I the only one who loves making non-instant oatmeal as if it were instant? Steel cut oatmeal, mix with boiling water, stir, let it sit, then eat.
It's chewy and satisfying, I prefer it to regularly cooked oatmeal, which can be too mushy.
Congee is not ground.
Grits are what's left after grinding hominy. Ground corn is cornmeal/polenta.
Gruel is seriously underrated. I still eat it a lot - though without brandy, and usually cinnamon and some caramelized apple chunks from our tree outside. It doesn't keep you full for long, but if you need something hot in you or something to take the edge off being hungry without committing to a proper meal it's good stuff. You can also throw in leftovers and various spices to make a sort of grainy stew, it's very good.
Seriously? There are porridge restaurants and you can buy a dozen ready made types of porridge even in small supermakets. It's one of the more popular breakfast dishes.
I agree. I prefer it savory (I don't have a sweet tooth, I have a spice tooth) so I love sprinkling in some dried jalapeños or habañeros, along with salt and sometimes almonds or other seasonal nuts.
I like it with cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla and butter.
I'm a great fan of cardamom.
You havw a caramelized apple tree 😲 thats awesome!
@@Katharina-rp7iqporridge restaurants? Where the hell are you from that they have porridge restaurants?
Max Miller: The first thing that hits you is the nutmeg.
Jon Townsend: Say more right now!
I thought of him as soon as nutmeg was listed as an ingredient.
As soon as the nutmeg was introduced I thought that Townsends ought to be involved!
Do you think if we say "nutmeg" three times Jon Townsend magically appears?
Jon Townsend and Max Miller need to collaborate in a video
Crazy as seeing further in the past these spices were reserved for the rich
You just sparked some great memories with this video. My Grandma made the best oatmeal. Always cooked with milk, served with butter, raisins, brown sugar and a textured, ceramic milk cow pitcher on the table.
When she passed her estate planner was amused to tell us that of all the 20+ grandkids and great grandkids, every one of us, asked for that pitcher. Not jewelry, not money. Lol, we all wanted that ceramic cow that showed up every breakfast at Grandma's house. ❤️
Thats so heartwarming 😭 So who got the pitcher? Im lowkey hoping you all have a cycle where it gets passed from the current user to the next user at family gatherings.
@@mariejuana2993 It went to the oldest grandchild, Susan. I was the youngest grandchild and was born within years of the great grandkids. I don't know what's happened to it in the past 23 years, but I can still see it clearly in my mind and know exactly how it felt under my fingers. (I still look for the same one on eBay and at thrift stores. 😊)
@@mariejuana2993 Also, in lieu of the pitcher, I received a small cash settlement from from Grandma's estate. That same month my dog was diagnosed with breast cancer. My Grandma's money paid for a mammary chain resection (in humans a mastectomy) and gave her 5 more healthy years with my family. ❤️
Awwwww
@@Shayna11NM awwww!!
I'm a Southerner. Grits is obviously a huge cultural dish for us, and it's what my mind immediately jumped to when you gave a definition of gruel at the beginning of the history segment. Hearing that gruel comes from the word "grut"... Grut, grits... Needless to say, my mind got blown wide open.
Grits is something we take so seriously because it's the one thing we ALL eat down here. White, black, rich, poor and everything in between, we ALL eat grits.
Grut, grits or grist, which simply means "grain".
@@maidenminnesota1 Or "groats", perhaps?
Man I love grits. Didnt even know it was a southern thing till I got older. LOL
It’s a staple here in the west too!! Settlers brought it with them during the westward expansion!!
Oliver Twist wanted some more because he was hungry, as all of them were. 😢 Charles Dickens’ himself was sent to a workhouse when hi father died and his mother had to remarry. Much of the account of Dickens in Oliver Twist was taken from his own experience. Gruel may not be bad and be tasty, but imagine having it all-the-time and only in small quantities. Life in the workhouse was really terrible and worse than a prison, indeed, with the difference that in the workhouse they had the option to leave at will. But was that really an option? I love your channel, Max, and the way it is presented. It’s a gem packed with knowledge, interesting historical bites, and utterly enjoyable. The historical recipes just add that spice to it all. ❤
You weren't allowed to leave unless you had somewhere to go, i.e. a job, so it was a lot like prison. That's why people were so afraid of ending up there.
Dicken's father was in debtor's prison and Dickens had to work in a bootblack factory starting at age 12. His mother would not let him stop work at the bootblack factory for some time after his father inherited enough money to pay the debt and be release.
A leather belt tastes good when you're starving. Watery oatmeal isn't that bad
My great-great-grandfather and his siblings ended up in the workhouse in the 1850's, after their mother and another sibling died of starvation (this was in England, in one of the slums). I got hold of the records from that workhouse, and it looked like a pretty tough regime, with long days of hard work and lots of punishments doled out for even slight transgressions, usually involving no food being given, or bread/water only.
And he drew the shortest piece of string. Poor Oliver.
My grandmother used to make gruel for us when we stayed at her house. Very thin porridge made with milk, a tiny spot of sugar and nutmeg or cinnamon. We had special cups from which to drink it. She was adamant it helped us to sleep and warded off what she called night starvation. A terrifying sounding condition which she said would lead to all manner of physical and mental ills in later life.
One of my friends grew up eating gruel. He said it was good.
Grandma was just trying to help you secure gains by keeping you from going catabolic overnight 😆
Grandma's house... if you get hungry, something dire has happened. There will be NO night starvation on Grandma's watch!
Doesn't sound bad, really. Like milk before bed, but reinforced.
I've heard it said that oats have some soporific effect. Milk definitely does.
In "A Christmas Carol" Dickens has Scrooge eating a bowl of gruel while sitting before the fire just before the appearance of the ghost of Marley. It is believed that Scrooge has a cold and is eating his gruel before bedtime for Medicinal purposes which as Max stated was a common practice in Victorian times . We know that Scrooge isn't eating it as his dinner as Dickens has already told us that Scrooge had already had is usual dinner at a tavern beforehand. Scrooge also suggests to Marley's ghost that he might be the result of "A bit of beef, a blot of mustard , a fragment of an underdone potato" which we must assume is what he consumed at the tavern before going home.
Interesting, thank you!
@@jama211 Oh yes, a Christmas Carol is my favourite Dickens story.
It could also have been that, as also shown in the Titanic menu, Scrooge had eaten a more substantial meal earlier but was now having a light evening meal. A bit odd given his social class, but not completely unthinkable.
Thought of that too. One of those scenes in English Literature that stick in the mind a lifetime.
@@Belgand yeah but that would make sense the way that Scrooge likes to act like a broke boy
Thank you for the recipe! I made this for my husband for the first time today (he's going through chemo), and so far it is staying down so yaaaaay! :D
You should do a crossover video with Townsends. That guy does all kinds of 18th century cooking and it would be awesome to see you two trying out different recipes together.
They have done that, maybe 2yrs ago.
@@PeachysMom incredible. Thanks!
Please sir, we would like another crossover
@@serenitymoon825 lmao yesssss
Townsends is too political
I call my son in to identify the Pokémon at the beginning of your videos, then trick him into learning history. Thank you for all the research you do.
Clever parent here!
huh, never noticed the pokemon in the background. this one is called muk, right?
@@tree427 Grimer, actually
@@sageashton31 man they look the same to me
@@tree427 My son said it was a Grimer, but can evolve into a Muk.
I think gruel maybe the most "misunderstood" dish in the entire history of food. Many modern dishes could be categorized as gruel, breakfast porridge and congee, as stated in the video, but also things like polenta, grits and risotto. Sure in "ye olde days" they might not have had access to as much spice and meat as we had, but even in medieval times they still could get a hand on certain dairy products, fruits and vegetable. The idea that somehow a farmer, who spent most of his day performing heavy duty labor, could somehow sustain his energy expenditure by eating a bowl of watery slime is ridiculous.
Gruel can be an appetizing dish depending what's added to it. Perhaps the Little Rascals were too hasty throwing their gruau in the snooty French waiter's face.
When he was explaining what gruel is in the beginning I thought, “so it’s like congee but with oats/oatmeal instead? Well that’s underwhelming!”
Gruel was the food of the industrial revolution. Medieval peasants needed much more sustenance, and each person ate several pounds of bread in a day. This was dense bread, made of a variety of grains, and often eaten with pottage
@@revinaque1342 And beer and pork too, for the Medieval peasants.
I am remembering how many "hot cereals" I ate and loved as a child that were basically gruel. Malt-o-Meal, Quaker Oats, Cream of Wheat, Maypo, Ralston's Purina, Corn meal mush. I would eat and enjoy cold cereal, but I really loved cooked cereals.
I've had this idea for a restaurant, that would serve various foods and dishes from the medieval, Renaissance and enlightenment eras. It would try to balance historical accuracy with modern tastes and availability. I thought of calling it "The Gruel and Grog"
Great Idea! Let me know when you open it, I will be a customer.
Such an amazing idea! I would definitely go. Please open it
We were taught in school here in the UK that whilst the government (or the beginnings of it) at the time felt obligated to provide the homeless with a place to eat and sleep, they often simply didn't need as many workers at most workhouses as there jobseekers. Not to mention, children, the elderly and sick people often couldn't really provide much help to workhouses already filled with hardworking, healthy people. They realised it was actually beneficial to them to keep a rotation of workers going to find the best ones, and as a result they actually tried to make the conditions in some workhouse WORSE than out on the streets, SPECIFICALLY so that people would not want to stay.
In my eyes, "gruel" is a *type* of food, like "soup" or "salad", with a very wide variety of versions, ranging from oatmeal, to corn mush, to cream of wheat. Basically just an old catchall term for a thickened grain dish.
...sounds grueling....
@@TheWolfsnack I see what you did there.
I like making it with cream of wheat!
@@valeriegarrity5773 corn mush is good too. Cream of wheat doesn't last long for me, 20 minutes later and I'm hungry again. Corn meal mush lasts longer, oatmeal even longer.
Might try barley at some point, but that's mostly because I like barley.
@@spvillano yeah, my mom used to make it.
In the eastern Mediterranean world, there is an ancient food called trahana. It varies wildly but it's basically a way of preserving milk/yogurt with some kind of wheat or grain which is then dried and crumbled into like a gravel. It is a super peasant-food, a traditional farmer's breakfast. It's basically one of humanity's first instant meals where you just boil it with water and you have a meal. While found in many cultures, trahana is one of the most Greek foods you've probably never heard of.
Apparently it's not just Greek, some variation of Trahana is present in Armenian, Albanian, and Turkish cuisine as well. The Turks add egg to the dough before drying
Sounds like a Mediterranean version of hard tack *clack clack*.
Hey, that sounds like the next "Tasting History" project.
Because now I really want to learn how to make that, partly because it sounds very versatile (spices, nuts, dried fruit) and partly because the thought of "gravel + water = meal" is so alluring.
Trahana is almost identical to Kishk, which is a similarly ancient staple in Lebanon, made by drying and grinding a combination of bulgur and fermented yoghurt. It's used to make an instant soup or porridge, but also used a bit like cheese as a poor man's stuffing and filling for flatbreads and pies, usually combined with spices and tomato paste and it's delicious. There's also an ancient vegan version made only out of fermented bulgur without the milk.
The basic staple in the mountains pre-modernity was a soup made from Kishk, and 'Awarma, which is lamb confited in its own fat.
Interesting detail I found reading a little further:
"A 10th-century recipe for kishk recorded in the Kitab al-Tabikh was made by par-boiling dehulled wheat, milling it, and blending it with chickpea flour. Yeast, salt and water were added to make a dough from the flour, which was left in the sun for around 2 weeks, and re-moistened with sour yogurt (or sour grape juice) as needed. After 15 days the dough would be seasoned with mint, purslane, cilantro, rue, parsley, garlic and the leafy tops of leeks, shaped into disks, and allowed to dry in the sun."
In the book, the reason Oliver asked for more was because all the kids needed more food. A few of the kids drew lots to get the gruel to split between them, and Oliver lost.
As a child my Nan made cornmeal gruel When we had colds it had a ton of onions boiled in chicken broth. If we had a stomach ache it had a wee bit of honey but NO milk. It was always very thin,
. The cornmeal was first cooked dry in a cast iron pot, until lightly toasted. Then the water or broth was added.
It was warming and comforting. I am now making it for my grandchildren and great grandchildren. I only hope they feel the same way I did when my Mum and Nan made it for me!
It's so fascinating that gruel was considered a food for the ill back then because as a Chinese people, we still consider congee, which is essentially rice gruel as mentioned here, as a good food for when you are sick.
I am from America southern part. My mom always made me rice gruel when I was having nausea, vomiting. She made it with cooked rice, small amount of milk, and sugar and butter. It was the best!
Maybe I need to try to make congee myself. The only time I have had it is as an "asian breakfast" option on a plane ride from the US to Vietnam. It was not good ... and I've avoided it since.
@@hettar7 its ridiculously easy to make! All you really need is water and rice, but make it with broth or other liquids to flavor it.
@@ericale9700 do you have a recommendation for a good recipe for congee? I dont trust myself to make it without a recipe. 😅
That's quite common, actually. In Brazil we have "canja de galinha" which is basically rice gruel cooked in chicken broth and it is also considered a nice treat for when one's sick.
When my dad was a kid he lived in a rural community, the family only had one car so all the shopping got done on Saturday when my grandad was off work. He said sometimes on Friday for supper they would have cornmeal soup or grit soup for supper because everything else was used up. I asked him what that was and he responded grits with 10x too much water. I always imagined that to be the southern version of gruel.
grits is gruel. Watered down grits is just water gruel.
You gotta love grits, tho. It's what makes us Southern. Well, n some other stuff...
Sounds accurate. Not too far off from Mexican atole, though we regard it as a drink rather than a food.
I wonder if grits was served in the famous Southern "workhouses" 😏😂😂 (along with the dee-lish pig 🐖 leftovers😂🤣) Ya'all truly belong somewhere for having lazy multi-grandparents 🔥🔥🔥🔥
@@nancyzehr3679 Mmm cheese grits!
My grandma still makes something like this with corn starch called "maícena." it's a simple, sweet, and filling dish for breakfast when things were tough.
Gruel is what I now have to eat for my dinner since our energy prices went up.
I like that gruel is a dish that can be either a pretty tasty meal or (sorry, it just popped into my head 😅) gruel and unusual punishment depending on the recipe used. 🍚
Never apologize for excellence!
@@lillianabaxter9125 I'll feed my workhouse ladies 🚺 only premium gruel.... on sundays..😏😂 thin - medium gruel the rest of the week, and you must apply to be considered 😏😂🤣😎
@@Aaron-us2ux lmao wtf 😂 🤣
Dad jokes is a GRUEL mistress
@@dominionwargaming8638 also: you have brought cowboy hat pepe the frog 🐸 shame.😏😂😂
One reason they might have used quotations around their words is that quotations were used for emphasis like italics but before italics were really a thing. Older people in the UK still do it and being told that someone "loved" your card you sent them still feels like passive aggression to me
I think it's because italics are a bit difficult to write by hand, especially if cursive handwriting, which is a bit slanted anyway, is the norm as it was back then.
This explains SO MUCH.
I never knew this! I thought there were just tons of people who couldn't tell the difference between emphasis and sarcasm.
@@Nightriser271828 they are also a bit difficult to write on a keyboard, seeing as there is no italics button. I could do *this* or **this** or _this_ or /this/ but who the hell can remember which markup works in which situation?
Older people still do this in the United States, too. My grandma would always send me cards wishing me a "happy" birthday!
In Germany, the yoghurt/puddings store shelf is also accompanied by a kind of gruel after this definition.
Grießbrei(semolina gruel), which is a mix of semolina, sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and milk. There are also finished mixes that you heat up on the stove with water or milk and eat hot.
Apparently, gruel just translates to Brei.
Grütze is a similar word. Before the arrival of the potato, there was almost only groats/Grütze for the rural population
Wait, like Matzo-brie/brei? That makes so much more sense
Oh my God, so I was eating gruel all those years as a child? I grew up in MN and this is pretty much what I made in the morning before school (sans Brandy of course).
Same here. oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, Ralston. Was never a big fan of oatmeal but I liked the other two. Especially with a little blob of ice cream on it.
Reminds me of my favorite line in "Annie", as delivered by Carol Burnette:
Ms. Hannigan: "Kids, we're not having hot mush today!"
Orphan kids: "Yay!!!"
Ms. Hannigan: "We're having cold mush."
Dickins had been in the workhouse for a while due to his father’s debts, so he had a very good understanding of the food and conditions there. Thank you Max for your wonderful channel.
Not exactly. Dickens did work as a child but not technically a "Work House", it was a business making something called boot black. A Work House was a government run not for profit last hope sort of place. I'm sure he was familiar with all the possible situations people got into, including the Debtors Prisons because of his family's poverty. There was no Social Security or Welfare. If you got into financial trouble you'd better hope a family member might take you in or you could end up in Debtor's Prison or the Work House, if not starvation on the street. Eventually Orphanages attempted to save babies that would otherwise been literally thrown in the gutter.
Regardless you gonna need more gruel not less to survive grueling conditiond
They straight up repo your kids back then. Brutal.
@@sawahtb I totally feel for the children of the past. The grueling conditions they had to live in. Even 80 years ago children died of diseases that are curable today. My mother has told stories about walking 9 miles to the school, in winter, with wolves lurking around, but my kids step out of the car and they're there. They always get the best food although I constantly try to train them to eat everything, because you never know...
He and his family lived in a debtor's prison - not the same as a workhouse.
There absolutely were work houses in the US. Sometimes referred to as the Alms House, the ones that I know of had a reputation for being better places than what you describe here. However, they were still abolished in favor of other forms of assistance.
My maternal grandmother was of Scottish descent, and as of such so, oatmeal/gruel has come down as a cold weather breakfast. I remember daily winter breakfasts of oatmeal with brown sugar and milk to warm me on my walk to school. These days, I am much more experimental and cook my oatmeal in spiced apple cider with raisins, dried cranberries and walnuts, topped with maple syrup. Another variation is, oatmeal with a spoon of cocoa, marshmallows and walnuts, for a rocky road flavor. I always look forward to a hot oatmeal breakfast in winter. It warms the soul.
In the infamous "May I have some more" scene from OT, EVERYONE wanted more gruel not because it was in any way delicious, but because they were all on short rations and starving.
They drew straws for who would go up and ask and Oliver lost.
..."never before had a boy wanted more!". I'm guessing Oliver's gruel was no-frills, undercooked, and rather sandy!
"The first thing that hits you is the nutmeg" somewhere Townsends felt a twinge of pride
It is Highly Unlikely people in Work Houses had "butter", "brandy", "sugar" or salt Added to their Slop. It was a place of Unbelievable Cruelty.
I thought gruel was just a word my mom made up for when she tells us dinner was ready “I made some gruel” didn’t know it was a real thing. I will show her this video tomorrow
Oliver Twist was a starving street urchin, he would have begged for seconds of anything they slopped out to him... it could have been grass clippings or mattress stuffing or my elementary school cafeteria's macaroni and cheese, he'd have eaten it.
And every time I hear the world, my brain goes straight to the Grool, the monster of the Goosebumps book "It Came From Beneath The Sink!"
Not a street urchin, as he'd always had _somewhere_ to live, even if it was the workhouse or being "fostered" by a pinch-penny who only took in the boys for the stipend she was paid for it, and fed them as little as possible because she didn't want to spend the money (that was supposed to cover their needs) on the boys.
I have heard grass clipping can make a good soup - a tale Mum has passed on as something that occured in the Great Depression, though Mumbwas a country girl in a modest central NSW town, but I guess it depends on what sort of garden a household had.
@@TheMimiSard
I'd much rather pick specific plants from the lawn, and grass itself is pretty far down my list. Goutweed, on the other hand, was introduced to Norway as a potherb, so that should be a good choice. It does make a good pesto, after all. And if that's not enough (unlikely, as it literally grows as/like a weed), I also have dandelions and even a bit of wood sorrel.
Come on now! Anything but school cafeteria macaroni and cheese. 😂🤣😭
@@marialiyubman I don't think they even used cheese. The few times I got close enough to smell, I would swear the "sauce" was actually watered down mayonnaise.
"No gooseberries until you finish your gruel!" - some medieval mother, probably.
Baby don't hurt me...
Mike
@@ShowTimeAtTheAppllojames
What they call gruel in English in Spanish is an Atoll. Sans the booze. Any ways it's served as more of a thick drink and it's absolutely delicious. And very comforting.You can make it out of corn or rice as well boiled with lots of cinnamon. If you add Greek yogurt to it, you have a slow protein that will fill you up until lunchtime.
(I think you mean the Mexican beverage called atole. Chilean here. I can assure you it is a Mexican specialty, the ingredients aren't easy to find elsewhere; I have seen it only in books and videos. It looks delicious :-)
@@emaarredondo-librarian This drink is not just a Mexican specialty anymore. I have traveled quite a bit and found the drink ubiquitous as versions of it are made in every country in Central America. The Cubans make a version as well.
@@susiefraser9182 Mexico and Central America, not all Spanish speaking countries - not Spain, for sure. Corn is still thought as food for animals there. Chilean here, currently in Argentina. In Chile, there's a lot of Peruvian and Venezuelan immigration; in Argentina too, but still Italian-Spanish cuisine is prevalent at the most popular level. Atole is unknown, and isn't even offered in Mexican restaurants. The specific ingredients to make it (corn masa harina, piloncillo sugar) are nowhere to be found in the commerce. There are plenty of local dishes and desserts based on corn, but not atole (nor tamales, but there are humitas in all the Inca Empire area of influence - they aren't the same thing). Atole has been always a Mexican specialty (the word is originally Nahuatl), also found in neighboring countries, but hasn't become popular beyond its original source. Latin America (let's not forget the Portuguese and French aspects of it) is huge, and not similar to Mexico outside of its own area of influence.
Great to know you have traveled around. I was born and have lived here for 60 years.
Horchata is another
Thin rice or oat gruel, sweetened and drank iced
Mexican
As a Cape Bretoner with four "Macs" amongst the grandparents, I was brought up on oatmeal made with water and salt. My brother and I considered ourselves blessed because we were allowed milk and brown sugar with it; my grandfather wouldn't eat it unless you could stand a wooden spoon up in it. My wife, being a Dane, eats it made with milk instead of water, and with a big lump of butter on top. I love it to this day; but my kids grew up considering it punishment for not eating the 'real food' we had prepared for dinner. "And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges."
My mom used to make a version of buckwheat grits, cooked in buttermilk, and served with a little hollow in the top that you could fill up with butter and syrup (stroop in Dutch, like the stuff that's in a stroopwafel). That too had to be so thick it would self support a wooden spoon standing up! The traditional version of this dish is also served with fried bacon, but that's not how we make it. My brothers and dad hate it, it's like a solid slightly acidic block, but I still make it on occasion.
Oh yeah, I too use milk and add butter. I guess it's pan-european tradition.
The porridge I grew up with was rolled oats, 50/50 water/milk, maybe a pinch of salt, served with golden syrup (which I guess is a sugar syrup made from sugar cane - corn syrup is still very difficult to obtain here in the UK)
My grandfather wouldn't eat it unless you could stand a chair up in it on one leg. And he would put way too much peanut butter in it. It was basically just peanut butter.
Yeah never was a fan of porridge. We had it like your grandfather, very bland and with a texture like snot. Milk and a bag of brown sugar helped a bit I guess. Fresh berries and cream more so.
Oh my god, I can't believe I didn't catch this before now. If "gruel" comes from "grut", then it's clearly a cognate to the Scandinavian words for porridge, which is "grød/grøt/gröt". Which just... makes a lot of sense. Gruel itself is actually called "vælling/velling/välling", which derives from Old Norse and means something like "viscuous/flowing food".
"I am Grut."
Grütze in German
@@boatingman11 I clicked specifically on this comment section to see if someone would say that 🤣
Thank you, you made my day.
@@lise7538 ... You're welcome.
Also see “groats”. Are “grits” a cognate too possibly ?
This was a basic but in actuality they added what was available. Sugar was too expensive so they added an egg. Also they added vegetable broth which they sometimes found wild. Also some added mushrooms. Others added cheese too. It looks like you already said some of these.
You can considerably improve oatmeal (cream of wheat, rice, etc.) by adding butter, soy sauce, and beef (or chicken) bouillon. I'm partial to the beef "Better Than Bouillon" in mine; YMMV.
Oh Max, I've been hoping you would do a gruel episode. And here it is. Thank you for all your hard(tack) work!
Clack! Clack!
whenever I hear someone say "hard tack" I get that image of Max smacking two of em together lol
Agreed!
*CLACK CLACK*
“Interesting” is one way to describe the workhouses; absolute hellholes, which tortured and punished the poor for the moral shortcoming of being born or becoming poor. Poverty was considered a matter of morality, rather than the simple misfortune of birth it was for most.
And the unfortunate many get longer sentences or even execution for stealing things than murdering people...
And it seems to be a sentiment among many of todays wealthy (in the US at least), they'd rather make it harder for the poor, to supposedly cause them to work harder at becoming not poor, than to give real aid or relief.
Today we have Walmart and Amazon warehouses.
It's just like now, honestly.
@@roofdogblues7400 Impact Investment. It's a thing where the poor are kept poor so Wall Street can bet on their "outcomes." Check it out.
My first thought when I saw the title was about Krusty brand imitation gruel. Glad he referenced it!
I just found your channel and what a perfect first video for me to pick. I was highly impressed to hear you talk about the Scottish porridge drawer, I've never heard anyone outside of Scotland mention it! When my grandad was a baby he slept in the drawer just above the porridge drawer as the war was on and his mother couldn't get/afford a proper crib.
you mentioned acorn as one of the several types of gruel--i'd love to see something made with acorns on the channel some day! dotori-muk is a korean acorn jelly that apparently has some history to it so that could be fun.
I definitely want to do something with acorns one day
@@TastingHistory id love something about acorn coffee or various coffee substitutes during ww2. my grandma told me they used beechnuts for coffee, and they were horrible.
It's a lot of work, you have to wash the bitterness out of the ground acorns first. I'd prefer to revitalize a great tradition I've heard of: feed the acorns to the pigs, subsequently eat those acorn-fattened pigs.
Acorn Porridge or Wiiwish was the staple Indigenous food in California pre-colonisation- an episode on pre-colonisation Californian foods would be really cool!
@@koganusan4025 Fallout New Vegas uses mesquite beans for flavor and tobacco so the nicotine can substitute for caffeine I think.
So as you know, Chinese's version of gruel is congee (ie rice gruel) - and it's interesting how memories from childhood affect it. My granparents and my father love congee, and is said to be food of the sick (favorite type: thousand year old egg + dried oyster). Many older generation also like sha-tian chicken congee. Unfortunately my memory of it is always plain congee served during fever... so I come to loath it.
An episode of Congee/juk can be interesting, as legends attached to some congee (eg Laba Congee) are numerous.
There was a congee shop near the hotel I worked at. I had to be there for 4:30 am so for my "lunch" break or after work i often got breakfast there instead. I tended to like pork and salted duck egg. When I told one of my Chinese friends they told me about the sick food thing so I wonder if I looked really weird having it for a regular morning meal
皮蛋瘦肉粥 and 艇仔粥 are classics at the Cantonese wonton houses.
Frog leg congee is my favourite dish of all time, and my maternal aunt runs a store selling seafood congee back home
I will literally get out of bed for the first time in days if promised duck leg ginger congee. I feel like people forget the amount of digestive issues and pains people went through "back in the day", so something like gruel is actually palatable. As Long COVID and other post infectious syndromes become more and more of a public health issue we may see a return of such "sick foods" into the popular consciousness.
@@melskunk Not weird. Having congee for breakfast (with youtiao) is a very Hong Kong habit.
When my father was growing up in Africa, the orphanage he was at used to make a gruel out of sorghum or teff, which teff is a grain that grows only in the region my dad grew up in. He remembers it as being terrible. Sometimes fruit like cactus pear or mango was offered and it was a nice change up
I live in Manitoba (central Canada) and it just occurred to me that Red River Cereal can be used in place of Scottish/steel cut oats. Red River Cereal is a porridge (or hot cereal) made from a blend of cracked wheat, rye and brown flaxseeds that was created in Manitoba in 1924 and takes its name from the Red River valley.
Honestly any porridge to me sounds quite nice no matter the culture or the context which it’s referred to. It’s warm and nourishing. Just a bit basic but universal.
This is a normal breakfast at my house 😂 sweet, savory, you name it. Usually with bacon fried in the pot first so the grease gets used in place of butter. Eta: the kids love tasting history, so maybe now I can get them to stop whining about the cheap breakfast choice, thanks Max! 😂
Oatmeal is a favorite hot breakfast for me, when I get the time. I make it suuuuper thick though (quicker to eat lumps of it), with a pinch of salt, brown sugar, rasins, walnuts (if I have them), sometimes maple syrup and cinnamon. I can really struggle to get moving in the morning, so the sugar does help, as does it being a warm meal. Still, it's substantial enough to hold me until morning break, or even lunch if need be, even when working very hard labor for hours in the weather.
Otherwise I just grab a frozen breakfast sandwich and shed a tear for my abandoned taste buds
I seem to think of it with some kind of meat drippings. Don't know why as my Mom served oatmeal with salt, sugar, butter and milk. Hmmm . . . maybe she threw in some bacon bits and I just was too young to remember.
One of my favorite gruel dishes is polenta. My ex-mother in law used to layer the polenta with spaghetti sauce and a little grated cheese. My ex grew up literally dirt poor in Italy and this was a staple.
Your videos are so soothing, I watch and rewatch them every night when I’m falling asleep or when I’m up all night and I can’t sleep
I have to say, of the (few) recipes you've shared that I've tried, this was the saddest. Through no fault of either yours or mine, I must make clear: the gruel tasted great, but as a frequent and fervent enjoyer of oats, the thinness of it was in the end kinda off-putting, like a dilute porridge. And, while it was filling when I ate it, in little over an hour I was hungry again, since it really was mostly water. It really puts things into perspective. The flavor profile I'll try with a proper porridge soon, though.
I make it with milk.
They weren't joking that it had a bad reputation, as it's basically a very simple and lack luster meal. Either add milk if you want to make it "richer" in flavor.
I mean, it's great as a "fasting" meal if you want to cut some weight, though.
Try adding beef bouillon, soy sauce, and a pat of butter. Delicious!
It would definitely lack enough calories to keep someone going for hours of work. That was really the issue when it came to poor families and workhouse folks. Cheap and temporarily filling but it's starvation in the long-term.
I like that you tried the recipe even thought it might be not „as tasty“ as dishes we eat today!!
Given gruel's reputation, I was half-expecting the legendary hard-tack scene to make an appearance, as a comparison to undesirible foods
Hard tack & kipper is good eat'n
@@capnbilll2913 not when the hardtack has gotten moldy and full of weevils
@@AngryEggs231 Eh, the mold and bugs just add extra nutrition!
@@zenogias01 Nutrition only counts when it isn't immediately and catastrophically offset by various toxins and poisons.
Absolutely love how you give us the everyday persons food. Well done.
I love that you included the Broons!
One of the funniest stories was where Paw Broon bits into a slice of the dried porridge and breaks his teeth on a toy car 🤣
Martin, I thought I was the only one who recognized the Broons strip. I think that was the episode you mentioned where Pawnis demonstrating to the kids that left over porridge can be poured into a drawer on cold nights and then sliced in the morning.
My mom told that her father did the same with polenta, and then fried it the next morning.
@Anita Nalley thats exactly the one I was referring to! The Broons is absolutely brilliant
Don't forget "Oor Wullie"
🤣🤣
Gruelscum is my new band name. Thanks, Max!
I like it!
The fact that workhouse workers were called inmates…yeah, that checks out. Food and board are only actual perks if you’re actually fed *enough* and given livable accommodations.
Many workhouses were punitive, or at least had people under punishment amongs their ranks.
When I spent the fall of 2013 in a Seattle homeless shelter, the term of choice was "guests" for me and 50 of my closest friends sharing sleeping space in a not-large-enough room.
Indeed, the work performed at workhouses was often of substandard quality or completely worthless for any real economic purpose (because more well-off workers complained about unfair competition from these unpair inmates devaluing THEIR labor) so instead the inmates were directed to what was essentially physical torture like turning a pointless crank or picking apart tarry ropes so the fiber, "oakum", could be sold to plumbers for caulking. A common philosophical belief of the era was that caring for the poor without putting them to some kind of work would only lead to indolence and other sins, so hard labor, no matter how pointless and cruel, was deemed a moral necessity.
To be fair, in census documents, any people who lived together in the same house (family, lodgers, servants, hospital patients, as well as prisoners or workhouse members) were termed "inmates"; it's only in more recent times that the word "inmate" has been reduced to only referring to prison inmates.
@@Agamemnon2 i agree about not having work leading to indolence and other such things, the point would be giving people work WITH purpose and dignity
I love watching!! Never stop❤
This is one of the best channels on cable, social media, TV etc. Thank you.
When I was growing up, our "gruel" was overboiled rice with whatever leftover protein we had (usually chicken or ham), plus some odd diced onions, a single sliced carrot, etc. It made a few simple (leftover) ingredients into enough food to feed 4 growing kids plus. I'm going to try some of the variations you've mentioned.
Where you from, and what culture would your parents be more associated with? Would be interesting to hear about rice gruel traditions outside of China and Japan (I know Korean have their juk but I know little enough about them, and I can guarantee anywhere that eat rice will have rice gruel)
Hmmm…I make this to this day. I call it “clean out the refrigerator casserole”. My family loves it.
This is basically rice porridge or 'moi' as my mom calls it. Whatever leftover rice from yesterday's lunch or dinner is simmered with water until it resembles mush, and eaten with chicken soup, fried peanuts, and soy sauce. During Ramadhan, the water is swapped for coconut broth and spices, with meat and veges mixed in with the rice.
I sweeten my oatmeal with molasses or honey after cooking and then thin and cool it with enough cream that it is basically gruel. I call it porridge though, that sounds better I think. 🤔🤓🍻
Just came across your channel - it’s brilliant!
Gruel terrified me as a kid, because Dickens be like that. I was also mighty afraid of boarding schools XD
So I flat out hated "cream of wheat" which I associated from the description. But ate my rice pudding happily.
This was a short glimpse into the Victorian workhouse age, it's nice to be reminded that the ruling class has always punished the poor, simply for being poor.
Had to re-watch for the Pokemon - Grimer spotted!
We are in the same page.
Cream of Wheat, and Grits can just die.
Rice pudding and Oatmeal, hell yes
This must have been a grueling episode to make. But, like Oliver Twist, I'm still going to think ahead to next week with a "Please sir, can I have some more?"
Thanks! This was interesting to learn about!
Oh yes..thank God I found this video..I have been looking for a recipe for grewl for years..can't wait to try this one out..thankyou
Had a friend who made something like this and he would put raisins soaked in brandy with brown sugar. It was delicious. Never knew it was gruel, always thought he just liked watery buttered oatmeal.
Add a litle ground-nuts to it, than it's perfect!
I just can't imagine it with brandy. Don't get me wrong I've had brown sugar brandy before so I know it can go with those flavors. But a dish like this would usually be eaten in the morning, not to mention I feel like the brandy's alcoholic taste would just overtake the dish.
@@Goldenkitten1 the alcohol, Brandy, is cooked off, so it won't actually taste like alcohol...
@@leeeightiesbaby9435 I was aware alcohol cooks off in certain dishes but I thought it would take longer than this.
@@Goldenkitten1 ok jackrabbit
One of my favorite winter breakfasts is Scottish oats cooked with cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar and enough milk to make it the same consistency as the video. Warms you up and is especially good with a nice cup of tea.
Sounds delicious 😋
What a fantastic, historical, informative video. Well done.
Most realistic and relaxed cup of coffee I’ve ever seen.
“I like gruel!” Wiggins from Pocahontas is all I think about when I hear gruel. 🤣
Same!!! 🤣🤣 I love that cheery little man.
I love your addition of the nursery rhyme. People don’t realize lots of nursery rhymes actually started off as political jabs. “Baa Baa Black Sheep” is actually about taxes. “Mary, Mary Quite Contrary” and “Three Blind Mice” are actually about Mary I and her persecution of Protestants. It’s fascinating how many of the rhymes we learned as kids have darker meanings to them.
Jessica Conley, Here's a more recent one for you: "The weather was cruel when they dished out the gruel/Dan O'Connor was down with the fever/Fifty rebels today bound for Botany Bay/How many will reach their receiver? "
@@ccahill2322 never heard that one before.
@@tinuviel-undomiel , That suggests you do not live in a certain area of Europe. Or you do not take much interest in general knowledge or recent and not-so-recent history.
@@ccahill2322 nope, I’m from the US
@@tinuviel-undomiel , I did think so and that is not meant to be taken as an insult. I will explain. The quote mentioning "gruel" came from a poem/song written by a man named Bobby Sands. An Irishman of mixed Protestant/Catholic family. He was elected by a large majority of voters but did not take his seat in Westminster since he would not recognize the right of a British parliament to rule over part of his country. He died, on hunger strike, in the Long Kesh concentration camp in early 1980's. Among his writings was the song: "I wish I was back home in Derry. Its' subject matter is when the British used to transport Rebels/Criminals from Ireland to Australia. If you wish to listen it's on you tube somewhere. An interesting aside: One of the rebels who escaped and went to the US fought for the Union during the American Civil War. His name was General Thomas Francis Meagher, who was a leader of the Irish Brigade in the Union Army. He later was Governor of Montana. Hope this is of interest to you.
You knocked another one out of the park Steve Tiller. Awesome episode
I am loving the use of Paw Broon filling the Pirridge Drawer
Paritch*
"Gruel Scum" is also a pretty awesome name for a British Grunge band.
Did Britain have Grunge bands? I feel like they didn't because they were always operating at that level of depressed hate just as a part of the national character
They did...Bush comes to my mind. 🤔
We had punk rather than grunge. Gruel Scum is punk af though
I believe punk originated in England. Gruel Scum reminds me of the 90s grunge moment, a la Puddle of Mudd and Jars of Clay
@@flowertrue and Pearl Jam! One of my favorite eras of music
@ Fien
If the entire population doesn't mind being named "subjects", paying for every folly of the monarchy, then they deserve it. In downtown NYC the style of "punk" is just standard fare. Forget goth and grunge. Dirty jeans, motorcycle boots and leather jackets.
" For a soldier he always is decent and clean
In the finest of clothing he is constantly seen
While other poor fellows go dirty and mean
And sup on thin gruel in the mornin"..
This gruel recipe is essentially how i make my oatmeal in the morning. Oats + milk, let it sit while I do my morning things, then add banana and fruit, let it sit more, add maple syrup/butter/salt.
Fascinating. I have "gruel" like twice or 3x a week and honestly it's delicious.
I throughly enjoyed Congee with chunks fish in it. It was amazing. Great video as always!
I was raised by 4 Mothers real, foster, 2nd Foster and Step. Later I was put in an orphanage, which was normal for the 1970s. We had some interesting meals there. One was Gibbers, named after the slate on the Gibson desert. I helped make and also ate these. They were made 12 at a time buttered and spread with a silk screen and squeegee, then wrapped in grease proof paper and went stale and hard by lunchtime. I ate mine and bartered for other peoples! They came in three flavours Baked Beans, Peanut Butter and Vegemite. My favorited was Peanut Butter. Why did I eat them? Most westerners do not know hunger… I had had my fair share and if you can see out your life without it, do! Tomorrow I will make and eat your Gruel for breakfast. Happy to have the choice, it will be better than many meals I have had and I will enjoy the history of it. Thank you, Blue
you get to know hunger and her gnawing and you never forget. We're all 4 missed meals from being someone we would rather not be
Groot's appearance at 4:18 was perfect 👍
Unexpectedly fascinating!
Being Scottish I am delighted you enjoy our favourite breakfast. Porridge! Love the show. Keep em coming! Maybe look into other scottish dishes, stovies, square sausage, cock a leekie soup and tripe 'n' ingens (Tripe and onions). ps my father's mother made porridge and put it in a drawer to cool/harden and my father would have it as his play piece (snack at break time in school).
Ah, cock-a-leekie soup! I love making that in colder weather.
Both of my parents are Scottish and my aunt's ancestor set his porridge in a drawer and cut pieces to take with him while he worked.
@@gwennorthcutt421 yes even better is to let the pieces dry out then fry out
Mmm square sausage baps for breakfast! Brings back my childhood.
My Mother used to make me a version of gruel but made with corn meal when my stomach was bothering me.
I love that you mentioned Mr Woodhouse. He is synonymous with gruel in my mind.
I really enjoy these vids!
My late grandfather was in a workhouse/ orphanage as a child turn of the previous century. He never mentioned the food. Now I'm curious and wish I could ask him about it. The few times he mentioned that place he didn't really say anything positive, but he lived through it. Love how much history you include with each recipe!
For a treat, instead of butter at the end, Max, toast the oats in the butter until brown before adding the water. Yum. TBH - I always *hated* oatmeal, until I was given some made with steel-cut oats. Rolled oats in a packet with boiled water poured over is a gluey disgusting mess, but properly prepared steel-cut oats are a delight. They don't really need as long to cook as the old recipe, though, 12 mins. Is enough.
I'm with you, steel cut oats, only! They seem more filling to me.✌️😺
My father lives in Scotland, and makes his own porridge every day for breakfast. He will go on _at length_ about why you have to use proper steel-cut oats, and how proper porridge should be made with water instead of milk. I prefer it with milk myself, but I will admit he makes a damn fine bowl of porridge.
@@hjalfi Yep, and always salt, never sugar.
@@hjalfi Yep, the best porridge I ever ate was in Scotland. The best of the best was in Orkney. Our B&B mom had a real talent. (Normally they served a full Scottish, but we had grown tired of it and asked for porridge that day. So happy we did!)
Oats, either kind, water and milk in a 50/50 ratio, pinch of salt some butter; don’t cook quite as long as the recipe says. And use a bit more oatmeal than the recipe calls for. You’ll get a thicker, slightly more toothsome oatmeal. Save sugar and other things for topping also I’ve cooked it adding raisins and diced apple with the oats. I agree steel-cut oats are better but rolled out has the benefit of needing less time to cook and, if you find it’s a bit too thin, you can add more oats and cook it without risking overcooking.
Nice R2-D2 mug there! I love it "I am Groot"
Your collection of dishes must be large. Your thumbnails are beautiful. Enjoy watching this channel for education and entertaining to see someone actually make the food, try it, and give feedback.
Gruel is still a thing in Greece; ours is typically eaten sweet, made out of cracked wheat and sugar, plus cinnamon, but depending on one's will to make it better or not, it can be quite elaborate. It's mostly made from the left-over memorial wheat preparation called "κόλυβα" and eaten accordingly, but it's also made by itself and for no other particular reason.
My Romanian based bakery I work at often makes coliva for memorials as well but there's often extra they sell after and given they add cocoa and rum to it alongside the sugar and walnuts that are apparently more typical I can see why ours is so popular even without the religious reason
@@melskunk That sounds delicious!
Max you are able to turn something as ordinary as oatmeal/ gruel into a captivating history lesson! ❤️ Love it. I personally love oatmeal and have so many comforting childhood memories of eating it with my mother and or grandparents. I usually only eat steel cut oats now, and now because of laziness just soaked overnight. One gruel type grain dish that wasn’t mentioned is made from sorghum. In Tunisia they usually have a light breakfast of coffee and cookies and small pieces of toast dipped in olive oil, but they do a nice gruel with sorghum. They also occasionally have a spoonful of a sweetened grain mixture called bsisa.
Came here hoping for a Mr. Woodhouse reference and am now absolutely delighted! Thank you.
very interesting background to the dish. Must try some of the variations
Another reason for its bad reputation is that gruel and its various relatives around the world is widely regarded as "sick/old people food" on account of being easy to digest, fairly nutritious and not requiring any working teeth.
Edit: Aaand I should have waited to watch the whole thing before commenting because that's covered :P.
TBF I don't think he mentioned poor teeth.
german oat soup is the best thing ever if you have an upset stomach. loads and loads of caraway in it.
@@koganusan4025 sounds tasty even if one is feeling fine.
Also, a lot of people went into the Workhouse to get access to medical treatment. But Workhouse medical treatment was often not sanitary or praticed by people who had decent doctoring skills. It was often either slow death via what condition you had or fast death via the workhouse doctor.
Annnd that's why when it came down to your circumstances being choose one of the 3: going into the workhouse, becoming a criminal and being likely sentenced to Transportation (to colonies like Australia) or death via starvation, people went with transportation.