I was given a spurtle (twenty years ago by my Scottish MIL) and have no clue what to do with it. I don’t eat or make porridge. But my kids love the stuff their Scottish father makes!
Porridge ? The most uneatable "food" ever made : disgusting texture, almost a bland taste if it wasn't for this little very bad after taste and so stodgy that you'd better not eat it before a race against Ussain Bolt if you want a chance to take off before he passes the posts....
I was trying to get the full Irish experience when I was there.
When I got back I asked my grandmother if she ate it growing up she said “why do you think I left Ireland? Food like that!”
Her dry humor was awesome.
The problem with porridge is that people eat it with sweet things, turning it into a disappointing dessert, when proteins and pickles and hot sauces would be much better. Congee and grits are great.
I like porridge with just a hint of sugar, can’t be doing with nuts and seeds for breakfast. Of course a massive full Monty fry up is better still ( no black pudding though, yuk)
Goodness me ! Porridge and vegemite on your list 😂😂!! Add Irn'Bru and shortbread and you'll become best friends with my husband @roddy13.bsky.social 😂😂
my Weegie mom was convinced it was actual food, so it was thrust upon me often at breakfast
not enough brown sugar on earth to make that taste like anything but shit
undigestable
I add a 1/2 chopped apple when I am cooking my steel cut oats along with raisins. When cooked I warm almond milk (or regular milk) and add a scoop of protein powder, stir into oatmeal and top with sliced almonds or walnut pieces. This ups the protein and makes it more filling.
I wouldn’t have it every day (or every month) but porridge with its slow release carbs isn’t the worst start to the day. Just don’t put sugar, syrup, honey or any other sweet crap on it.
I don't understand why some people take someone else's tastes as a criticism of their own differing ones!!!
I sometimes like porridge (though only occasionally) but I can understand why people might not.
But I get so much grief for not liking wine, beer, celery, fennel bulbs, bitter coffee...
Sometimes I eat oats just out of the bag :3 they're pretty filling! Although I prefer making oat porridge with them! It's not my favourite porridge though, I looked up the translation and apparently my favourite is "semolina porridge" in English! There's a 3rd one made w rice but its not as good :)
When I was a kid, I liked oatmeal with brown sugar and maple syrup. Now I'm older, I like Irish style steel cut oatmeal with a bit of sweet cream butter.
I'm also the only person I know who eats unadorned plain jane Cheerios.
Yeah, I'm *that* fuckin' guy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9qYF9DZPdw
I hated porridge for my entire life, but recently had to diet due to risk of T2. I do the same as you (hat-tip Michael Mosley), but less claggy and minus the syrup. And have come to find it quite tolerable.
I like it set like wet cement. Otherwise I believe I saw @nicmiller.bsky.social call it “devil’s semen” and that is correct. Bcs it gives me the heaves.
I had to eat a bowl of unadulterated porridge for a series of articles about an Englishman testing Scottish food. First spoonful: great, like Calvinist risotto. Fourth spoonful: how much more of this can I take? Sixth spoonful: how can I not have made a dent in this stuff?
The worst recipe I've ever seen was porridge, slightly undercooked, prepared with water and salt, you know, when you hate life and actually want to experience what that loathing tastes like.
For me it serves only as a lovely sentimental flavour of childhood. But it is also kind of like glue? My Scottish mother makes it with just water and salt - I dunno...maybe slightly prison-y but still, happy memories!
She's not coming for your oatmeal, if you prepare it correctly. Oatmeal doesn't become porridge until you boil it wayyy past al dente like some kind of brit
It's like polenta folk are always telling you it's soooo much better with this and that added . If it was nice it wouldn't need a quart of golden syrup and some chocolate nibs
I’m about to go and make porridge for my mum. It’ll be about 30% clotted cream, 20% fruit compote (the porridge is just a vehicle). Alzheimer’s makes it a brand-new experience for her every morning.
I can’t eat it myself: gives me raging hypoglycaemia by midday.
Look, you know I love historical food and I can see how our ancestors ate pottage etc and the connection with pudding etc, etc, and yeah it was brothy, had mest juices, dried fruit, butter etc....but modern porridge for breakfast is just wrong.
Also, the food you need to eat before setting out in a howling gale to plough the north forty is not necessarily the food you need to eat before a morning spent pounding a hot laptop.
Porridge is a magical food from my childhood books.
I still see hot porridge, in my mind's eye, taking over a village.
It's also what civilized bears eat.
i have enjoyed it in the past but the sugar crash two hours later means it's no use as a breakfast. have a friend with type 2 diabetes and she's 'cured' herself by eliminating most carbs. she was a key steer for me getting into yoghurt/nuts/berries NO OATS.
mad how our perspective on food can shift. i remember pasta being marketed as the food of marathon runners back in the late 80s and not a quick spike on the road to sugar rush mountain.
It's such an individual response. I'm diabetic and mashed potatoes (even though fat eaten with carbs usually prevents a blood glucose rush) send me sky high but chocolate and ice cream don't. Pasta is okay if I eat it sauced.
i found the idea of going carb free appalling but i've definitely shifted my patterns over the last 18 months. just not having toast for breakfast has made a huge difference to how i feel across the morning. protein shake for lunch and i'm usually only having one 'proper' meal a day. i like it.
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I get people that can’t handle the texture, though. It’s not for everyone.
When I got back I asked my grandmother if she ate it growing up she said “why do you think I left Ireland? Food like that!”
Her dry humor was awesome.
As a T2 diabetic, it's my breakfast of choice… with nothing added except maybe a little salt. Yes, I am being serious.
I also like Vegemite on dry toast.
not enough brown sugar on earth to make that taste like anything but shit
undigestable
I sometimes like porridge (though only occasionally) but I can understand why people might not.
But I get so much grief for not liking wine, beer, celery, fennel bulbs, bitter coffee...
👀☹️
And that's saying something as I have so few things to pride myself in.
I’m so into overnight oats soaked in kefir and greek yoghurt. Much lighter on the stomach and keep me full through to midday.
Porridge, which I liked did not agree with my stomach so we said goodbye decades ago.
I'm also the only person I know who eats unadorned plain jane Cheerios.
Yeah, I'm *that* fuckin' guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9qYF9DZPdw
*A minute of sombre silence*
I can’t eat it myself: gives me raging hypoglycaemia by midday.
I still see hot porridge, in my mind's eye, taking over a village.
It's also what civilized bears eat.