What's on your porridge?

  • Hey Guest, Early bird pricing on the Summer Moot (29th July - 10th August) available until April 6th, we'd love you to come. PLEASE CLICK HERE to early bird price and get more information.

What's on your porridge?

  • Sugar

    Votes: 81 35.8%
  • Salt

    Votes: 48 21.2%
  • Honey

    Votes: 87 38.5%
  • Milk

    Votes: 52 23.0%
  • Jam

    Votes: 18 8.0%
  • Nothing

    Votes: 15 6.6%
  • Don't like porridge

    Votes: 13 5.8%

  • Total voters
    226

andybysea

Full Member
Oct 15, 2008
2,609
0
South east Scotland.
WAY HAY! sugar is beating salt, when i first came to Scotland i went to the works canteen (where i used to work) and though mmm that porridge looks good think i will have some of that after putting a large spoonful into to my mouth i nearly threw up with the salt in it, needless to say i left it all and never went there again! its a cereal it needs to be sweet,please excuse my sacrilege to the Scot's on here and my misses give's me grief but salts just wrong.
 

subedarmajor

Forager
May 25, 2008
138
0
winterton uk
I voted honey, but I prefer a drizzle of maple syrup and I nearly always put a knob of butter in. I get really ticked off when I forget!

Also just for the record I also like it with a little salt in the mix sometimes, and other times I'll put in trail mix or chopped nuts or dried fruit...it just depends what mood I'm in and what's in the cupboard.

I'll have to try some of the methods suggested above, I particularly like the sound of the cooked breakfast.

Cheers, Alan.
 

Miyagi

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Aug 6, 2008
2,298
5
South Queensferry
i prefer a wee bit sugar on mine aswell , Andy ..

Sacrilege!!!

I was brought up on porridge with salt and it was all I knew until a few years ago.

When I was Chef at Telford College Edinburgh, the boss decided to have a healthy "Porridge Station" from October through to Spring.

It was made without salt and with different toppings available etc., I was adamant it would never work - porrridge is porridge after all - oh how wrong I was.

We had to nominate one of the lads as Porridge Chef just to keep up with demand.

TBH it was quite nice actually. :) (Canny beleive I'm admitting that).
 

Hugo

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 29, 2009
2,588
1
Lost in the woods
Love porridge....mum used to cook it in a pan with milk and then put it in a dinner palte like a cow pat, then poured a pool of milk round it and sugar sprinkled on it.
This way the porridge cools quicker and you can scoop up the porridge and add some of the milk to the spoon to cool it. Haven't had it like this for years as mine is done in the micro:eek: try it this way one day it is a good way to eat it....I am a porridge expert... dont like salt on it as I think of it as a pudding and not savory add a bit of cream to the milk to really pimp it up! D


My mum did it this way as well.
Us Four boys used to love it this way, I also used to go out in the woods with a paper bag (do you remember them) with porage oats and sugar mixed up, it used to keep me going all day. And yes it did rot my teeth.
I also spent a couple of years in a children's home run by a Scottish couple, porage was the main breakfast , made with water and some salt added.
I hated it at first but then got used to it.
SHMBO made it this morning, not bad but not as good as mine.

I love the stuff.
 

forestwalker

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
I think we have a greater variety of porridge than you have in the UK.

Oats (generally rolled/steal cut). The standard.

Rice. As described above, traditional around Christmas, lovely, takes the most time, can actually be dome with brown rice as well.

Graham porridge. A course ground wheat cereal, simmered in milk.

Mannagryn. A coarsely ground wheat (semolina?), added to boiling milk and stirred for a few minutes. Often a favourite with children.

Rye. Rolled or steel cut. Cooked as oats

Various mixes. My preference, typically oats, rye, barley, etc. Cooked like oats, but comes out "more substancial".

There are also older reciepies, such as porride made from coarse rye flour.
 

Klenchblaize

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 25, 2005
2,610
135
65
Greensand Ridge
The Scots use porridge as punishment as far as I can tell. Or at least that's how I remember my treatment by the Landlady of a certain Glenisla B&B back in the early 80's. To this day I still can't workout if it was down to the bits of heather I left in the bedroom sink after washing out heather and tick-infested socks, the smell of Young's 303 Oil or simply that I was young and English but even though she knew I could not guarantee to be back from roe stalking with FSC by 9Am that was the time the porridge was placed on the dining room table and would stay there until I attacked it with knife & fork!

She didn't mind me feeding the electric meter with English 50p's though!

Cheers
 

fred gordon

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Mar 8, 2006
2,099
19
78
Aberdeenshire
Scots have a dish called skirlie.
It's basically like corn grits but made using pinhead meal.
Usually onions are fried in either bacon or meat fat and then the oatmeal is stirred in and cooked slowly until it goes beyond sticky and into small savoury crumble.
It can be done with butter but that always seems oily for some reason, though I find vitalite margarine is remarkably good.

cheers,
Toddy

Ah Skirlie.One of my favourite dishes. The champion Skirlie maker in my family was my late father, couldn't be beaten. Skirlie and new tatties just makes my mouth water followed by clouttie dumpling. Skirlie makes a great camping dish. If you haven't then you should try it. :)
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
That's real home cooking :D

Funny, isn't it?
Here we are in a world where we can have any food we like, from anywhere we like, any time of year we like, and we still want the plain and everyday stuff of home. Porridge, skirlie, clootie dumpling :D

Skirlie and new Ayrshire tatties :D and the skirlie left until it's almost toasted :D Brilliant :approve:

Thon thick chewy treacly skin off the dumpling, the smell as it hardens up and sets beside the hearth.........never mind the steamed up kitchen as it boils :rolleyes: :D

I've not long had dinner, and now I'm hungry again :eek:

cheers,
Toddy
 

Poco

Member
Jan 15, 2010
16
0
Manchester
It depends, hot porridge needs sugar and a small pinch of salt maybe with cinamon.

I have taken to letting the oats soak in cold milk for an hour, with banana, honey and raisins. It sounds odd, but the milk rehydrates the raisins a bit and the oats fluff up.
Great in the summer
 

locum76

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Oct 9, 2005
2,772
9
47
Kirkliston
Skirlie and new Ayrshire tatties :D and the skirlie left until it's almost toasted :D Brilliant :approve:

To save some time you can just bile yer tatties, gie them a shoogle in the pan wi a dod o butter and roll them in yer toasted oats.

magic. :)
 

bikebum1975

Settler
Mar 2, 2009
664
1
49
Connecticut
Now I am a bit odd at times the way I like my oatmeal and am guessing yes I am American that porridge is the same thing I have tried it once with salt in it and I flat out HATE the taste though on a side note not sure how many of ya know what Ramen noodle is but I add a pack of it to my oatmeal at times and I use the chicken and beef flavor most yes I add the flavor pack to give it a more savory flavor depending on my mood but I just love oameal has to be nice and thick though don't like it soupy. I also love it with honey or brown sugar and I have it with peanut butter at times love adding butter to it to and HAS to be made with milk at home. One more wierd thing I put in my Ramen oat mix at times is tuna fish. Sounds wierd but makes an excellent all day breakfast.
 

Miyagi

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Aug 6, 2008
2,298
5
South Queensferry
Now I am a bit odd at times the way I like my oatmeal and am guessing yes I am American that porridge is the same thing I have tried it once with salt in it and I flat out HATE the taste though on a side note not sure how many of ya know what Ramen noodle is but I add a pack of it to my oatmeal at times and I use the chicken and beef flavor most yes I add the flavor pack to give it a more savory flavor depending on my mood but I just love oameal has to be nice and thick though don't like it soupy. I also love it with honey or brown sugar and I have it with peanut butter at times love adding butter to it to and HAS to be made with milk at home. One more wierd thing I put in my Ramen oat mix at times is tuna fish. Sounds wierd but makes an excellent all day breakfast.

I love ramen noodles (most Japanese food in fact) but would never have thought of doing that with oatmeal.

We got porridge every morning as kids, so that these days I tend to avoid it. I'm all porridge'd out I think.

The Army used to issue rolled pinhead oatmeal which was good though. :)

Strange breakfast? I've Japanese friends that can't understand why we have burnt bread for breakfast - toast.

atb

Liam
 

Toddy

Mod
Mod
Jan 21, 2005
38,937
4,570
S. Lanarkshire
I want to know who first thought that frying up entrails stuffed with ground up flesh and dried bread, unfertilised avian ovum, and slices of smoke preserved hin end of a pig, was a good breakfast :yuck:

cheers,
Toddy
 

Miyagi

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Aug 6, 2008
2,298
5
South Queensferry
aye but still pigs blood with it makes all the difference :)

But don't forget the mushrooms !!

Nor the fried onions, the fruit dumpling slices and the French toast and the hash browns.

Yes, hash browns.

Hash browns are Irish folks. A spuds and onions recipe transported to Ameriky (as my late Gran used to say), they called hash bowns, and a variation became known as Corn O'Brien.

I beileve the Italians were so impressed that they pinched the recipe and invented Rosti...

And as for Mayo? They cleverly called it mayonnaise just to make it sound French...

:):)

Liam

(Take all that with a pinch of salt - boom tish!!)
 

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE