When you order porridge in a trendy breakfast café today, you probably don't think about the fact that porridge is one of the oldest foods in existence. The warm oatmeal is more popular than ever, highly praised for its wholesome ingredients and its effects on energy levels and blood sugar.
Typing ‘porridge recipes’ into Google yields millions of search results and opens up an endless variety of porridge variations and preparation ideas.
Porridge – a food as old as humanity itself
The origin of the word ‘porridge’ can be traced back to the expression ‘pottage’, a variation of the French word ‘potage’ – a term for soup – but also to the word ‘pot’, meaning cooking pot.
Although the word ‘porridge’ was not used until the 17th century, the practice of chopping or grinding grains (such as oats, wheat or corn) and cooking them in a pot with water or milk is much older.
The consumption of porridge-like dishes has accompanied the entire history of civilisation. Scientists now believe that cooking cereal-like grasses was already practised around 12,000 years ago and accompanied humanity's development from nomadic hunters and gatherers to settled farmers.
The processing of cereals was not limited to the production of porridge, but also opened up the possibility of thickening the cereal porridge and baking it as flatbread or in brick form on hot stones or in the embers of a fire, making it durable and portable. This civilisational innovation – from porridge to bread – can be traced back to almost the same time and to all continents.
The preparation of rice porridge has been documented in China for 4,500 years, while in other regions such as South America, quinoa was eaten in the form of porridge more than 3,000 years ago. Porridge was also common in the Mediterranean region and in Africa.
From ‘poor man's food’ to stirring clockwise
Back to modern porridge, which today is mainly associated with Scottish oatmeal. For climatic reasons alone, oats and barley were the predominant cereals in Scotland and played an important role as food. Strictly speaking, Scottish porridge is made by gently simmering oatmeal in water or milk, stirring constantly, adding a little butter and a final pinch of salt. Today, traditional Scottish porridge is mainly enjoyed for breakfast as a creamy, warm dish, often sweetened with sugar or honey.
This was not always the case, as porridge was considered a ‘poor man's food’ in the 18th century. Oats were a staple food, especially in rural areas, and the porridge made from them was not only eaten hot, but also stored in wooden porridge tins once it had cooled down. The porridge solidified as it cooled, becoming thick and firm, and could be eaten over several days, sliced, fried or stirred back into a porridge.
In keeping with its importance as an essential food, there are many wonderful customs surrounding the preparation of porridge. Proper stirring is very important. A special stirring tool called a ‘spurtle’ is still used for this purpose. This is a round stick with a slender surface that prevents the oatmeal from sticking to the stirring stick and thus prevents the porridge from clumping.
Since 1994, the annual ‘World Porridge Making Championship’ has been held in the Scottish Highlands, where porridge chefs from all over the world compete for the Golden Spurtle trophy. Incidentally, stirring clockwise and only with the right hand is said to bring good luck. Conversely, stirring counterclockwise with the left hand is said to bring bad luck.
The variety of porridge from Verival
Whatever the case, more and more people today are finding happiness in a bowl of porridge, whether stirred clockwise or counterclockwise. This is especially true with Verival porridges, such as the popular Verival Strawberry Chia Porridge or the new Verival Sport Porridge Chocolate Banana.
Verival porridges are available in 10 different flavours and are incredibly easy to prepare – simply add boiling water or hot milk, stir and leave to stand for 3 minutes. The Verival range also includes a number of gluten-free products and many vegan porridges.
