What's on your porridge?

[myotis]

Oatmeal (cooked with salt) then eaten with chilled cream. But I don't sprinkle salt on it, so not sure what to say in the poll.

A mugfull of water is boiled and stirred with with a spurtle (wooden stirring stick) then a handfull of oats is slowly sprinkled into the water while still stirring. You need to keep the water bubbling and it takes about 30 minutes to cook properly.

At a stage while it is still fairly runny, I add a pinch of salt. If you add it too early it stops the oats swellling properly and they can stay hard. I then continue cooking until the porridge is fairly think and "plopping" like the way you see hot lava plopping.

Its then served in wooden bowl and eaten with a horn spoon. The cream is in a separate bowl.

I don't always have the wooden bowl/horn spoon/cream ritual, but it all adds to the pleasure of a good bowl of porridge. Unfortunately, I am having real problems finding decent oatmeal, it all seems rather bitter compared to the natural sweetness I feel it should have and I don't make porridge very often.

Porridge made with porridge oats, while a fine dish in its own right, is such a disappointment when I am looking forward to "porridge", that I never eat it.

I prefer my porridge oats as muesli. OR when backpacking I used to mix porridge oats with tropical mix and pour boiling water over it give me a sort of tropical false brose.

Graham

 

[gilly0802]

ok so i havent looked through this entire thread but....

does anyone else put butter into their porridge???........... my mum does but i personally cant stand it....

 

[woodstock]

Another way I have cooked it

1st melt some ghee get it quiet hot then add your oats fry until a golden brown then add the milk tastes great...

 

[Old Pa]

OP's Oats are a treat around here. 1/2C old fashioned flake oatmeal, 1 heaping TBS of half and half by volume mix of canned McCann's old fashioned steel cut oats and Bob's Red Mill Scottish old fashioned oatmeat, 1TBS chopped walnuts (or pecans), and a grind of sea salt. Sweetener is 1 heaping TBS of Splenda (no calories or sugar shock). Raisins got old for me, so the fruit additive is 2 heaping TBS of dried cranberries or dried apples and cranberries with cinnamon or dried cherries or dried cherries, blueberries and cranberries or dried blueberries. I pick the bagged dried fruit at Costco or Sam's Club without any added sugar; it's sweet enough when concentrated by drying. Liquid is 9 ounces of half water and half skim milk and stirred to combine all ingredients.

Corelle soup bowls are just the right size and shape for cooking and serving; I have a set of eight dedicated to making oats. Cooked in serving bowl my micorwave; old fashioned oats need to be cooked over time. First nuking is on high just short of overflowing (3:30 on my home microwave in winter). Stir at this point, first getting thickened top to bottom and then to combine evenly. Second nuking is on high till it starts to bubble (20 seconds in winter) and then for 5 minutes on reduced setting that will not boil over (#4 on my home micro).

Hot cooked oats then need to be stirred and sit fifteen to twenty minute to thicken and cool. Stir and eat. Very good and luxurious nutty fruity flavor with great texture. True comfort food. Good and good for you. Way better than any of the instants. Only the spoon and bowl to clean up. SWMBO just had me make her a bowl with dried cherries for her Sunday breakfast treat. She even thanked me.

 

[jimford]

I put my porridge in sandwiches!

Jim

 

[Bogman10]

Milk and brown sugar ( salt is added during the cooking ) Sometimes I add dried berries too.

 

[Bogman10]

I just read a interesting bit from Horace Kephart, in his book Camping and Woodcraft, he quotes an article written by Dr. Woods Hutchinson ;"nobody but a Scotsman can live on oatmeal as his sole breadstuff; and it has taken generations of training and gallons of whiskey on the side to enable him to do it"
My Parents are from Glasgow , I guess that's why I love the stuff!

 

[BushcraftBaird112]

Milk, honey and sometimes berries for me!

 

[Toddy]

I'm not allowed to eat oats anymore
I miss oatcakes, and porridge , and skirlie, and cranachan, and mealie pudding.......
Oats are the ultimate comfort food.
Miss barley too though......bere meal bannocks

Toddy

 

[DavidJT]

Golden Syrup of course!
Unless out and about then it would be brown sugar ready mixed into portion bags.
Oh, and a little salt.

 

[Tony]

I had porridge on Sunday, nice brown sugar while it's cooking, i actually put in a bit of jam which i can never remember doing and it tasted naff so i'll not do that again.

I do want to start getting used to it with just water and limiting the sweeteners

 

[Cyclingrelf]

I also like to make it thick so I can pour the excess into a tray and let it set. Then I cut it into squares and shallow fry it along with some smoked bacon, black pudding, mushrooms and a couple of fried eggs. A bit of brown sauce and it's lovely.
Eric

I have to say, that sounds very, very nice Except for the brown sauce.

 

[huntsmanbob]

I have always had porridge or oatmeal cooked with salt , if i want something with fruit & nuts its got to be Gordons organic museli .

 

[landyandy]

when i was a kid i had porridge with a pinch of salt and then go in to the barn and get some milk out of the cow strate in to my porridge pick the hay out and enjoy. now i just get it from the bottle in the fridge ,not the same..

 

[forestwalker]

I voted milk, but the options also include "nothing" and "unsalted butter". Sometimes I add some lingonberry preserve or apple butter, but that is perhaps once a week at most.

 

[Melonfish]

i was shown salt not sugar in real porridge, but as a kid used to eat ready-break in the winter with sugar but what kid doesn't love sugar?

 

[BigShot]

Well, I've had porridge a few ways over the years and today I'm having 1 cup oats to 2 cups water and about half a tsp of salt. Simmered until pretty thick. Bowl of cold milk for dipping.

If I'm having it sweet - honey - that can't be beaten.

Hmm - think I might grab a handful of raisins to go on the side.

 

[Indoorsout]

Absolutely revolting with salt! Mind you, I don't use salt in cooking or as a condiment at all, I just don't like the taste. Porridge shouldn't be an endurance test!

Sugar, milk and sometimes jam or me Or honey, or berries, or dried fruit... Whatever is in the cupboard really.

My mothers second husband was a Campbell from South Uist and when I was a toddler we went up there to meet his family. Lets just say mum had to make the poridge for our side as my sisters had fits when they got salty stuff instead of sweet!

 

[BigShot]

Indoorsout - I couldn't agree more.
My view is quite simply "if you can taste the salt, you've used far too much".
That's true for all food, by the way, not just porridge.

Salt can, when used properly, be an incredibly useful flavour enhancer, really opening up the flavours in the food it's used with. It also changes the way things cook when used for things like boiling spuds or pasta.

The idea of "salty porridge" makes me feel kinda ill. But porridge with salt in it is different - it's really "oaty".

 

[forestwalker]

Then there is the religious war here; oats in cold water or oats in boiling water? I am strongly in favour of the latter; the porridge does not turn into goo.