According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word porridge, first seen in the 16th century, may be a variant of pottage or porray, both types of stew or broth.
The term is often used specifically for oat porridge (called oatmeal in the U.S. and parts of Canada), which is eaten for breakfast with salt, sugar, milk, cream, or butter, and sometimes other flavorings
The Buddha recommended eating rice porridge, saying "There are these five benefits in rice porridge. What five? It stills hunger, dispels thirst, settles wind, cleans out the bladder, and promotes the digestion of the remnants of undigested food. These are the five benefits of rice porridge."
Breakfast for most Ancient Greeks was a hot porridge made from cereal.
The majority of the population in the Roman Empire, especially in its early days, lived on pulmentum, a porridge of barley, chickpeas or emmer wheat flour. It was made by roasting, and pounding the grain then cooking it in a large cauldron. Sometimes it was diluted with milk and it was accompanied by bread, fish or ground pine nuts.
Here are two ancient recipes for porridge from On Agriculture, written by Cato the Elder (234-149 BC) from Lacus Curtius. The first porridge recipe is Phoenician and involves fancier ingredients than the simple Roman recipe involving grain, water, and milk.
Recipe for Punic porridge: Soak a pound of groats in water until it is quite soft. Pour it into a clean bowl, add three pounds of fresh cheese, half a pound of honey, and one egg, and mix the whole thoroughly; turn into a new pot.
Recipe for wheat pap: Pour half a pound of clean wheat into a clean bowl, wash well, remove the husk thoroughly, and clean well. Pour into a pot with pure water and boil. When done, add milk slowly until it makes a thick cream.
The Vikings' first meal of the day was called "dagveror". It was a porridge consisting of a mixture of barley and rye cereals.
During Columbus' fourth voyage, his crew waited until nightfall before tucking into their meal of crumbled-biscuit porridge, so that they wouldn't see the worms.
An English visitor to Scotland in the early 17th century described a "pottage" made of oatmeal flour, boiled in water and eaten with butter, milk or ale. This meal, which was to become known as porridge had many regional variations in Scotland and was either served at breakfast or as the main course at lunch or dinner.
Traditionally, Scots porridge should be served in a wooden bowl and stirred with a wooden stick.
The wooden porridge stirrer is called a spurtle. The Golden Spurtle is the trophy for the annual World Porridge Making Championships in Carrbridge.
Porridge was commonly used as prison food for inmates in the British prison system, and so "doing porridge" became a slang term in the early 1950s for a jail sentence.
Nelson Mandela's favorite breakfast was plain porridge, with fresh fruit and fresh milk.
The Scottish firm Baxters is best known for its tinned soups. One rare failure for the company was its canned porridge, which was discontinued after just a few months on the shelves in the 1960s.
Source Daily Express, Food for Thought by Ed Pearce, Thought
The term is often used specifically for oat porridge (called oatmeal in the U.S. and parts of Canada), which is eaten for breakfast with salt, sugar, milk, cream, or butter, and sometimes other flavorings
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| A bowl of oat porridge By Nillerdk - Own work, Wikipedia Commons |
The Buddha recommended eating rice porridge, saying "There are these five benefits in rice porridge. What five? It stills hunger, dispels thirst, settles wind, cleans out the bladder, and promotes the digestion of the remnants of undigested food. These are the five benefits of rice porridge."
Breakfast for most Ancient Greeks was a hot porridge made from cereal.
The majority of the population in the Roman Empire, especially in its early days, lived on pulmentum, a porridge of barley, chickpeas or emmer wheat flour. It was made by roasting, and pounding the grain then cooking it in a large cauldron. Sometimes it was diluted with milk and it was accompanied by bread, fish or ground pine nuts.
Here are two ancient recipes for porridge from On Agriculture, written by Cato the Elder (234-149 BC) from Lacus Curtius. The first porridge recipe is Phoenician and involves fancier ingredients than the simple Roman recipe involving grain, water, and milk.
Recipe for Punic porridge: Soak a pound of groats in water until it is quite soft. Pour it into a clean bowl, add three pounds of fresh cheese, half a pound of honey, and one egg, and mix the whole thoroughly; turn into a new pot.
Recipe for wheat pap: Pour half a pound of clean wheat into a clean bowl, wash well, remove the husk thoroughly, and clean well. Pour into a pot with pure water and boil. When done, add milk slowly until it makes a thick cream.
The Vikings' first meal of the day was called "dagveror". It was a porridge consisting of a mixture of barley and rye cereals.
During Columbus' fourth voyage, his crew waited until nightfall before tucking into their meal of crumbled-biscuit porridge, so that they wouldn't see the worms.
An English visitor to Scotland in the early 17th century described a "pottage" made of oatmeal flour, boiled in water and eaten with butter, milk or ale. This meal, which was to become known as porridge had many regional variations in Scotland and was either served at breakfast or as the main course at lunch or dinner.
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| Porridge by William Hemsley (1893) |
Traditionally, Scots porridge should be served in a wooden bowl and stirred with a wooden stick.
The wooden porridge stirrer is called a spurtle. The Golden Spurtle is the trophy for the annual World Porridge Making Championships in Carrbridge.
Porridge was commonly used as prison food for inmates in the British prison system, and so "doing porridge" became a slang term in the early 1950s for a jail sentence.
Nelson Mandela's favorite breakfast was plain porridge, with fresh fruit and fresh milk.
The Scottish firm Baxters is best known for its tinned soups. One rare failure for the company was its canned porridge, which was discontinued after just a few months on the shelves in the 1960s.
Source Daily Express, Food for Thought by Ed Pearce, Thought
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