If television taught me anything growing up, it’s that you’re supposed to hate your in laws- especially your mother-in-law.
I mean seriously, how many American sitcoms have episodes where the mother-in-law (MIL) shows up and the husband or wife (or both) go nuts as she criticizes her way through the episode- with wacky and hilaaaarious results.
A lot.
It’s as standard as the mid-season clip show or the ol’ ‘schlubby guy married to an incomprehensibly hot woman’ trope.
So, imagine my surprise when I met Colin’s mum and she turned out to be… well, pretty awesome (and I’m not just saying that because she is one of my most faithful blog readers- Hi Maureen! 🙂 ).
We have brunches together. She lets me put hot sauce on my waffles even though, with good reason, she thinks that is a crazy person thing to do. She brings me plants for my garden and antique mason jars for the blog. She helps me fix my back aches when I get too ambitious at the gym. Heck, we even make jam together every summer. It’s pretty great.
My MIL always makes dessert when we come over for dinner because that’s what good hosts do, because they understand most people have a sweet tooth, and that finishing a good meal with a sweet something is wonderful. As someone who usually opts for seconds (or thirds) on dinner instead of dessert, I am rarely this good a host.
A few weeks back we were over at Colin’s family home for dinner and my MIL brought out a blueberry grunt for dessert. It blew my mind and made me immediately revisit my long-standing neglect of a proper dessert course.
So, what is a Blueberry Grunt? (aside from a hilarious name, obviously) It’s a cobbler… that you cook on the stove top (or campfire. OR CAMPFIRE, GUYS. CAMPING DESSERTS!!!) instead of in the oven. The drop biscuits steam instead of bake and the simmering fruit makes a ‘grunting’ noise as it moves through the biscuit dough, hence the name: Grunt.
I think it’s also called a Slump, since that’s what it does when you try and put it on a plate, but I much prefer the term Grunt- it’s such a ridiculous word for a food!
My MIL got her grunt recipe from an antique Nova Scotia cookbook, which I promptly borrowed. Apparently blueberry grunts are the Cape Breton thing, so we can file this recipe under Pure Canadiana.
I have adapted the recipe ever so slightly to suit my own tastes but essentially, this is a pretty traditional grunt! (“pretty traditional grunt” is now being filed under Words I Never Thought I Would Say Together)
| Blueberry Grunt | | Print |
- Berries:
- 4 cups blueberries (frozen or fresh)
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup water
- ½ teaspoon lemon juice
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- .
- Grunt:
- 2 cups flour
- ¼ cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 cup milk
- .
- Fresh thyme (garnish)
- In a medium pan, combine the berries, sugar, and water. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer until the berries have gotten jammy. Remove from heat, add the cinnamon and lemon juice and set aside.
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Cut in the butter then add the milk and combine until just mixed- do not over mix.
- Roll flour mixture into balls and drop them into the berry mixture. Place the pan on medium heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Do not lift the lid- the biscuit topping is steaming itself in the berry juices.
- Top with fresh thyme leaves. Serve warm with cream or ice cream.
Thanks for this! Just curious – what did you update from the original? I’m assuming the thyme? anything else?
Hi Sarah, I changed fairly little from the original recipe- reduced the sugar, added the lemon juice and cinnamon to the berries and tweaked the butter, baking powder and flour proportions ever so slightly (the original recipe always turned out a little rubbery). And added the thyme, of course 🙂
All in all, it’s pretty much a standard traditional grunt, though! If you’ve got a good base recipe, you don’t need to adjust much.
Love your MIL story! I married a Nova Scotian and learned to make a grunt from my MIL as well, but over the phone. I was told to use orange juice instead of water and only 1/2 cup of sugar. But the dumpling recipe she shared has never worked. I’ll try yours next time for sure.
Oh, wow! I love the idea of using orange juice in place of water, and I allllways love being able to cut the sugar in recipes. Thanks so much for sharing, Lydia! I can’t wait to try your MIL’s suggestions.
try mango puree instead of water or orange juice, mango and blueberry is incredible together. If you like making curd, try mango curd tarts and when you put the curd into the tart shell to bake, add blueberries. Just awesome….
I’ve been in Australia for 6 years now and they’re food-mad over here. Originally from Nova Scotia, I wanted to cook a dish to show my friends what traditional desserts are all about. I was thrilled to come across your site when I was searching blueberry grunt as it’s the closest to the recipe I grew up eating. I’ve made it 3 times now and everyone loves it. Great site. Thanks!
You need to make them a NS Seafood chowder, Seafood Pie or a Halifax Donair and really blow their minds 🙂 I agree with the orange juice in there – that’s how my mom made it for years since it adds a nice sweet/bitterness to offset the blueberry tang to mellow things out.
After a quick google of NS Seafood Chowder, Seafood Pie and Halifax Donair (the last of which I had never heard of before), I’m pretty sure I have a permanent Homer Simpson drooling face. Phew!
I do have to say, I think this would be perfect and for a topping, I think I would do my cheese frosting..
Package of cream cheese, a bit of ricotta and/or mascapone cheese beaten together until smooth, then add in heavy whipping cream (when you aren’t using alot it’s not that fatty! Besides, treat yourself now and then) Sometimes I add like a couple tablespoons of sugar to sweeten it a little more, but most the times I don’t bother. Often just either some bourbon vanilla extract or vanilla seed and I call it good. Thick, creamy, and lovely frosting without being overly sweet and is perfect on top of many desserts (and dead easy to make while camping, since i tend to have the ingredients on hand for other things already)
I use this for frosting my cakes and often topping desserts as its tasty, easy, fast and not sickeningly sugary. Also comes out way fluffier!
Oh yum, that sounds absolutely delicious, Lacy! I love this recipe you’ve shared, it sounds right up my alley- not too sweet, a little cheesy… I might just test it out for my daughter’s birthday party next month! 🙂
My mother added a pinch of nutmeg as well as cinnamon
Yum! Interesting addition, Veryl!
Do you think that you could make the dough a day in advance for camping?
Hi Rebekah, I would mix the dry ingredients together in one container and the wet ingredients in the other and mix them together right before you cook it
This was a big hit. Have made this before but like the addition, in this recipe, of cinnamon….it made a difference.
Great to hear, Diane! It’s such a small bit of cinnamon- those tasting it can’t really put their finger on it- but it certainly does add that extra depth of flavour, hey?
I can’t sign up for the newsletter. Please help!
Is the cast iron pan necessary to cook it in? I am going to Japan and wanted to bring an American recipe to make for my friends. I wanted to do my mom’s cobbler, but most people don’t have ovens! So I think I am going to try this recipe to sort of adapt my mom’s! It looks so delicious!
Not at all necessary! I like the cast iron while camping because it can go right in the fire, but by all means if you’re going stove-top any reasonably heavy-bottomed shallow pot or pan with a lid should work a treat. Have fun in Japan, Liz!!
Hey Finn!
Could you please recommend substitutes for butter and milk? Dairy is a no go here and am dying to eat something sweet that doesn’t taste like sugared cardboard.
My go-to substitutes for milk are either oat milk (made by mixing oats and water in a heavy-duty blender) just before using, or coconut milk. I guess you could try coconut oil for the butter if you need to substitute that as well. I just made this using butter and oat milk and it looks like it turned out (hubby is gluten-free).
Any ideas how not to burn it? Mine made a terrible mess when the sugar and blueberries burned onto my brand new LC cast iron skillet.🙁 I kept the heat low/medium but didn’t work at all for me. I think this recipe looks delicious but mine just tasted like burnt blueberries. My thoughts are add more liquid and turn heat way down but then would the biscuits cook?
Can you use any kimd of berries?
… no.
It’s called BLUEBERRY grunt for a reason.
Very good. Originally from NS but now in Sask. I miss the NS blueberries they are so much better than BC ones. BC are high bush and NS low bush, big difference. If I had made it with NS blueberries I would have said excellent !