A Friend in the Kitchen; Or, What to Cook and How to Cook It. / Sixteenth Edition

by Anna L. Colcord

Salt should be added to the water before stirring in the grain or meal.

All grains and meals should be put into actively boiling water to prevent them from having a raw taste, and allowed to boil fast until they “set,” or thicken, and cease sinking to the bottom; till then they should be stirred frequently, but gently, to prevent burning. After the grain has thickened, it should be stirred very little, or none at all.

Enough grain or meal should be used to make the mush quite thick and glutinous when done. Watery or sloppy mush is neither palatable nor strengthening to the digestive organs when used constantly. In fact, it should not be considered necessary to have mush every morning. A change occasionally to drier foods is better for the digestion.

Double Boiler

An excellent utensil for cooking grains is a milk or mush boiler, generally called a double boiler. This consists of one vessel set inside of another, the inner one containing the grain to be cooked, the other partly filled with boiling water. An ordinary saucepan, however, will do very well, if smooth, and by greasing the inside with a little butter before putting in the water, the tendency of the grain to adhere to the saucepan will be greatly obviated.

If a double boiler is used, allow the grain to boil in the inner vessel standing directly over the range until it “sets,” then cover and place in the outer vessel, the water in which must also be boiling in order that the cooking process be not checked; then leave to cook slowly until done. From three to four hours is not too long when the double boiler is used. Grain prepared in this way may be cooked on the previous day and simply warmed up again the next morning for breakfast. What is left over from any meal may be used in the next preparation.

If a hastily prepared mush is required, perhaps nothing better than the rolled oats can be employed, these requiring not more than half an hour’s cooking, as they are already partially cooked in their manufacture; but even these are improved by longer cooking in a double boiler.

It is very important, when making any kind of mush, that the water be boiling rapidly, and kept thus while stirring in the meal; for unless the grain or meal is thoroughly scalded when stirred in, not even prolonged cooking will take away the raw taste.