Medicinal and comforting porridge, eaten in bed or on days of weakness

Watergruwel — dried fruit gruel for the convalescent

Name: Watergruwel — dried fruit gruel for the convalescent
Total time: 50 min
Ingredients: Pearl barley — 80 g; Raisins — 40 g; Pitted prunes — 6, chopped; Dried currants or blackcurrants — 30 g; Light red wine — 100 ml (or grape juice); Cinnamon — 1/2 tsp; Sugar — 1 to 2 tbsp; Water — 700 ml

RemedyReconstruction🍯 🍋facile50 min

A fine porridge of barley or buckwheat groats simmered with raisins, prunes, and currants, livened with a little wine and mild spices: light, tart, and strengthening, the remedy of the flat country.

Why this dish? Of fragile health, undermined by glass dust from his lens-grinding trade, Spinoza suffered from chest ailments (likely the consumption that carried him off in 1677). Watergruwel, a light dried fruit gruel, was the dish the Dutch gave to the sick and weak to sustain the body.

My trade of polishing glass fills the chest with a dust that, I fear, shortens my days; so on weak days, I keep to this light gruel. Long-cooked barley is mixed with some Corinthian raisins and prunes, a dash of wine to revive the blood. It does not cure — I expect no miracle from matter — but it sustains the body, and as long as the body holds, the mind continues its work. Take some yourself when the cold seizes you.
— Baruch Spinoza

Ingredients

•Hulled barley or buckwheat groats — a handful (base)
•Corinthian raisins and dried prunes — a good handful (sweetness, acidity)
•Dried currants — a few (acidity)
•Light red wine — a splash (flavor, tone)
•Cinnamon, a little sugar — to taste (spice, sweetness)

How it was made : Watergruwel was a classic of Dutch comfort cuisine, served to the sick, new mothers, and during vigils. Without milk (made with water, hence its name), it suited fragile stomachs; dried fruits imported from the Baltic and the Levant provided sweetness and acidity. It appears in Golden Age cookbooks such as 'De verstandige kock'.