the plainest and most contested of national dishes: pinhead or rolled oats simmered slowly with water and a good pinch of salt, stirred with a spurtle and eaten with cold milk or cream, in the traditional view without a grain of sugar
Origin: Scotland
From the journey of Oat.
Porridge is the oldest and plainest use of the oat, and in Scotland it is very nearly a matter of national identity. For centuries it was the foundation of the Scottish diet, eaten morning and often evening too, cooked in quantity and, in the old crofting households, poured into a 'porridge drawer' to set, then cut into cold slabs a labourer could carry to the fields. It is made of nothing but oatmeal, water, and salt, and yet almost every point of its making is disputed with something close to religious feeling: whether to use coarse pinhead oatmeal (for texture and flavour) or rolled oats (for speed and creaminess); whether it must be stirred only clockwise, and only with the wooden stick called a spurtle; and, most fiercely of all, whether salt alone is permissible or whether sugar, honey, or syrup may be added. The traditionalist position is uncompromising: porridge is savoury, seasoned only with salt, and any sweetness is an English or a modern corruption. The salt is added part-way through cooking, never at the start (which is said to toughen the oats). The cooked porridge is eaten hot from a bowl, and the classic manner is to keep a separate bowl or cup of cold milk or single cream beside it, dipping each hot spoonful into the cold milk before eating, so that the contrast of temperatures is preserved to the last. The World Porridge Making Championship, held each year in the Highland village of Carrbridge and competed for with a golden spurtle, is a measure of how seriously the Scots still take their national dish. Whatever the disputes, good porridge is a thing of real quality: nutty, creamy, and deeply satisfying.
Pinhead (steel-cut) oatmeal gives the most flavourful, texturally interesting porridge and is the traditional choice; rolled oats are quicker and creamier; a mixture of the two is an excellent compromise. The salt is not optional in the traditional dish, even if you also add a sweetener: it brings out the flavour of the oats. Beyond the plain bowl, cold set porridge can be sliced and fried, and leftover porridge enriches bread and scones. The same base, with cream, honey, whisky, and raspberries, becomes the celebratory cranachan.
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