Blueberry Grunt

Blueberry Grunt 

Listed under the D tab for dessert, I couldn't help but wonder what exactly a grunt is.

• Grunt has many meanings, but in regards to cooking it is a typical New England dessert that consists of stewing fruit and topping it with dough which steams as the fruit cooks.

I'm not sure where the original recipe came from, but it looks like a newspaper clipping; yellowed with an advertisement on the back and glued to the front of a note card. I would assume my Mother took a liking to this recipe because of its New England origin. 

My Mother's heritage is English and I'm sure that spiked her interest being that she was first learning how to cook far away from home. My Father was stationed in the U.S. Navy in Corpus Christi, Texas where they lived for a few years after their wedding. While becoming the perfect housewife, she started building her recipe (shoe) box, which has remained the same since she first started it. 

When I told her my plan to make the recipe she said "Oh, you're going to make that?" with a sour face. She had made it once and it didn't turn out so well. But, it remained in the recipe box.

Thus bringing us to the purpose of my blog; to make the recipes my Mother decided were great so very long ago and to see if they ever were really that great!

Without any further ado, here is a copy of the original recipe:

Blueberry Grunt

This old-fashioned New England fruit

Dessert has a topping of deliciously

Flavored little dumplings.

Makes 4 servings at 19 cents each.           

1 Cup sifted all-purpose flour

1 ½ Teaspoons  baking powder

½ Teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

3 Tablespoons vegetable shortening

½ Cup milk

½ Cup granulated sugar

½ Teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 Teaspoon lemon juice

1 Cup water

2 Packages (10 oz. each) frozen blueberries (dry pack, no sugar), thawed

1)       Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a medium-size bowl; add brown sugar. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until mixture is crumbly. Add milk all at once; stir with a fork just until mixture is moist; reserve.

2)       Combine sugar, nutmeg, lemon juice and water in a medium-size saucepan; add blueberries; bring to boiling.

3)       Drop dumplings by tablespoonfuls on top of hot fruit mixture; cover tightly. Reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes, or until dumplings are puffy-light and fruit mixture is thickened. Serve with cream, if desired.

As I started the recipe I realized that most of the ingredients are already in our pantry. (Which is helpful when you need to make a dessert on short notice.) So I gathered all the ingredients and began my journey towards a hopefully delicious 'grunt' hoping it would go smoothly and I wouldn't be grunting through the process!

The first step is to sift the dry ingredients into a bowl. (I used an electric mixer, but you can use a hand held mixer as well). Instead of using a standard sifter, I used a very fine strainer which worked well and saved me some time.

Next up, the brown sugar. In case you're not a seasoned cook, you need to pack the brown sugar tightly into the tablespoon to be sure you have the right measurement, before putting it into the bowl. Then turn your mixer on to a light - medium speed until the dry ingredients and the brown sugar have combined. 

Cut the shortening in to the dry ingredient and brown sugar mixture. (I have a pastry hook for my mixer, but the regular attachment worked just fine.) What you'll want to do is add the shortening a little bit at a time while the mixer is on low to medium speed. By doing this you can be sure everything will become incorporated and the mixture will be crumbly. 

You can now turn your mixer off and detach the mixing bowl. Add all of the milk at once and incorporate it by mixing with a fork just until you see the original mixture become moist. Your mixture should look somewhat like this:

Once you've combined the milk with the rest of the mixture you can put it to the side.

Next you'll need to combine the sugar, water, lemon juice, and nutmeg in a medium sauce pan over the stove. The mixture will look pretty murky, but not to worry, it won't stay that way! 

Turn your stove on medium-high and add the blueberries to the pan. Once you've stirred in the blueberries you can let it cook until it boils. 

Now comes the fun part! Once the mixture has reached a boiling frenzy you'll need the doughy mixture we set aside before. You'll also need a tablespoon to scoop out the dough. Scoop full tablespoons of the dough and plop them into the boiling fruit mixture one by one. 

Careful, the mixture is hot so don't stand too close or you may be burned by splashing sauce!

Most of these dough plops will sink to the bottom of the pan. There should be about 8 or 10 of them all together.

Once you've gotten all of the dough mixture into the fruit mixture you can put the top on and let it do its magic! Be sure to reduce the heat to avoid burning. 

The recipe says it should cook for 20 minutes, however mine cooked for a good 40 minutes before I decided it was the right consistency. (Maybe cooking time went faster back in the 1970's!) 

Your finished product should look somewhat like this:

The recipe says you can add cream on the top to serve, but I'm a firm believer that ice cream makes everything better, so I added a few scoops of vanilla and voila a Blueberry Grunt! 

While this is not the best dessert I ever had, I supposed I wasn't expecting it to be! That being said, I rated this dessert a solid 3 out of 5 on the yummy scale.

While the blueberries were warm and gooey and it had just the right amount of spices, the dough wasn't what I was expecting. I was imagining something like a doughnut texture and instead it was more of a spongy goo. I suppose that's due to the steaming process? But at least there was no grunting during the cooking process! It was a pretty easy recipe and overall it wasn't so bad given the name and age! I also like that the original recipe tells you how much to expect to spend for each serving. Although the cost of each ingredient has changed tremendously since the recipe was first printed, I still think it is a pretty inexpensive choice.

I recommend making this on a cool fall day since it will fill your house with wonderful aromas and make you feel all warm and cozy! You can change up the fruit in the recipe as well in case you don't like/have blueberries on hand. Just be sure whichever fruit you chose will pair well with nutmeg. 

I hope you enjoy the recipe and share it with fellow adventurous cooks!