So why is porridge porridge and not boiled oats
Why is it called Porridge when it is just boiled oats?
In case you're not sure, this is what oats look like before they are boiled.
You can boil the oats in water or boil them in milk, it's up to you and down to taste. You can add salt if you're a tough wind blown kilt wearing Scotsman. Or sugar if you're just plain sane. You make the consistency thick or thin, but too thin and the result is called Gruel with all the images of poverty that name conjures up in the mind.
"More. You want more, boy?"
Too thick and you can hang wallpaper, mend car bodies, plug holes in the hulls of ships or use as an eco friendly replacement for cement to build a brick wall. Ultra thick and it becomes a weapon of mass destruction, and no amount of washing up liquid will remove it from the bowl.
It's not new of course and porridge has been found in the stomachs of 5,000 year old Neolithic bog bodies in central Europe and Scandinavia. It's unclear if the porridge was the cause of death.
Porridge is known all over the world by different names.
In Greece it's call Atheroma (meaning a lump of porridge from Athera, porridge in Greek).
The Russians call it Kasha and probably flavour it with spiced vodka to keep out the cold.
In Italy it's Polenta and in Scandinavian countries it's called a variety of unpronounceable names.
In England we call it Ready Brek.
In Scotland the art of porridge-making is competitive, and the World Porridge Making Championships are held annually in Carrbridge, Inverness-shire. The event is also known as the Golden Spurtle due to the winner receiving a gold-coloured trophy of a spurtle, which is a utensil used for stirring porridge.
The rest of the world calls that a spoon.
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