Porridge (oatmeal)

During my Hogmanay 2009/New Year 2010 visit to Alba, my friends Gordon and Margaret Campbell gave to me a copy of Scots Cooking, by Sue Lawrence. It's a treasure trove of recipes and their backgrounds, as well as Scottish "folk lore". The book is divided into sections, such as "Breakfast", and so forth. Well, upon arriving back in the USofA, my wife and I were perusing the recipes, and I was shocked, nay dismayed and chagrined to learn that every day, for more than 4 years, I have been cooking and eating my porridge in a manner more fitting a Sassenach than a Scotsman.

My personal recipe (developed over the past 4+ years) calls for equal parts oats, water, and milk, along with raisins to suit, and a diced apple. All ingredients are placed in a sauce pan, heated to boiling, simmered for a few minutes then served with a bit of milk poured over and sweetened to taste with brown sugar, honey, or whatever you like.

Weelll ..... according to the book, the porridge (oatmeal) should be soaked in water (not milk) overnight then cooked for about 15 minutes the next day. And only a Sassenach pours milk over the porridge; the correct manner of eating is porridge in bowl, milk in separate bowl; use horn (spoon) to grab some porridge, dip into milk, eat. This allows the porridge to remain hot, and the milk to remain cool(er for longer).

So, my wife and I have begun soaking the old fashioned slow cook oats overnight, and the difference in post-cooking texture is remarkably different from that of not-soaked, but I must confess I like the added creaminess of milk so we do use milk. With that said, if I was planning to pour the porridge into a kitchen drawer (or kist in NE Alba), to let it cool, then cut it into slices (calders) for frying I'd never use milk ... the milk would spoil and that would be nasty. Next up is to try dipping the porridge into a bowl so it stays warm rather than cooling it off by dousing it with cold milk.