Talk:Porridge

Oat and semolina
The article says that "Oat and semolina porridge are by far the most popular varieties". It needs to mention country. Oat and semolina porridge are not the most popular varieties all places. Fuelbottle | Talk 23:59, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Porridge is the "official" name of oatmeal? Says who? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.223.37.143 (talk) 04:20, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

History of Porridge
Who invented porridge? When is the first recorded eating of porridge? We Need To Know!--Snozzbert12 05:40, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Image
That is the weirdest look bowl of porridge (in the photo) I have ever seen. Who the heck eats it like that? 84.65.153.71 20:01, 26 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I concur. Can we just be absolutely clear - porridge in the UK does not look anything like that - the oats are mixed evenly with milk, there is an even texture throughout. The brown stuff in this photo doesn't even look like oat? Twrist 19:51, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
 * As a Swede, I can say that that looks like a perfectly normal bowl of oatmeal and milk, like I often have for breakfast. ;-) clacke 23:08, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I.e. the picture shows gröt, not porridge. -- Picapica 20:25, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
 * You eat it cold, presumably? I've just finished a nice hot bowl of porridge for my breakfast ;) hehe Twrist 12:49, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Yeah, look I am from New Zealand and that photo looks wrong, the UK people here are right, can we all just go back to making porridge properly, hot with a standardised recipe. Thanks. :) Stargateinternational 00:23, 8 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Can someone please take a picture of their porridge and put it up please? The present picture is not one of porridge.


 * I agree completely. As a Scot who has lived and eaten porridge in many places around the world, I've never seen porridge that looks like that. I'm not sure what the image is, but it looks like something someone has already eaten. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.99.252.93 (talk) 18:23, 31 May 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm not sure if the image displayed now is the same one that everybody else is talking about, but certainly the one up there now (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Porridge.jpg) desn't look very porridgey to me, or at least, it looks a bit like what porridge looks like before it's finished cooking (although the colour looks off - all the porridge oats I've ever had are grey rather than the yellow ones in the two pictures - perhaps a different variety of oat?). The porrige I've encountered has a much smoother texture. TimTim (talk) 12:40, 6 September 2009 (UTC)


 * I concur, the present image is ridiculous. It seems to show cold rolled oats (muesli style) which have been soaked in water or milk then dumped in a shallow bowl of milk. If you served that as porridge in England it would be sent back, and if you served it in Scotland you'd get a punch in the face. The whole article seems to have been written by somebody from outside the British / Irish / North American porridge tradition and is very misleading to anybody unaware of what porridge is. --Ef80 (talk) 18:03, 1 December 2009 (UTC)


 * While we're on the subject of the article having "been written by somebody from outside the British / Irish / North American porridge tradition ", here in the USA, NO ONE in the general public actually uses the word "porridge". Everyone knows it, but only from children's fairy tales. Typically the only types we actually eat are oatmeal and what we call "cream of wheat" (farina, made from wheat semolina). Southerners also eat "cornmeal mush", where of course the word "corn" has the North American meaning of maize. The only generic term I am aware of here is "hot cereal". Thomas.Hedden (talk) 12:18, 7 September 2016 (UTC)


 * I will make and photograph some porridge over the next week or so and make the picture available on here. Xyster (talk) 20:48, 3 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Three years later, still waiting for a decent photo of a simple plate of porridge--86.128.155.88 (talk) 11:19, 12 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Five years later, still no change. The photo seems to be from the German article. But in German, "Haferbrei" (oat pap, the photo's title) or "Haferschleim" (oat slime) doesn't necessarily imply it's prepared hot. But on every German pack of rolled oats there's a proper porridge recipe, so everyone should technically know what it is. ;) I myself made hot porridge many times. Someday, I'll upload a new image if nobody else does. ;) 79.227.163.92 (talk) 11:45, 14 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Dmdmdkdkddkrkrk 2603:8080:BD00:22A9:7067:B4C6:8C55:B870 (talk) 19:49, 28 August 2023 (UTC)

"Porridge as sold in German supermarkets" - No. - It's definitely *not*. Please remove that misleading picture w\ caption. I've never seen anything like that for sale in any German supermarket. We use Haferflocken i.e. rolled oats cooked in milk, and it's actually called "Porridge" - oder Haferbrei. And there is no recipe printed on the pack because ... it's obvious. 18:07, 14 October 2021 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2003:E9:2743:3F00:89A3:792D:FC4D:5983 (talk)

Porridge has been around since time immemorial
It needs to be taken out of Scottish Cuisine and put into World Cuisine. The first grains were not wheat but likely millet and it originated wherever grain was sown. Rakista 19:23, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

I created the Category:World Cuisine and added this to it and removed the Scottish Cuisine Link as I would have to add at least 10 other countries's cuisines as categories as well. --Rakista 23:34, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

Bad link
The See Also section has an entry for "mush", which is just a redirect to the unrelated concept MUSH from online gaming.

Somebody fixed this problem. Mobilegamer 21:00, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Porage
The article says porridge is often spelt "porage" in Scotland, as far as I know this isonly the brand name of Scott's (Quaker) Porridge Oats. Emoscopes 05:44, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Polenta Anyone?
Some corn grits are also marketted as Polenta, which is used in Italy. They pour sauce over it as if it were noodles. But I can't think of how to add a link in this article just now.Steppenvalve 00:35, 26 February 2006 (UTC)

Definition a copy?
The definition (first paragraph) is a copy of http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Porage

I'm not sure of the original source, but it appears Wikipedia's is not the original. 68.187.192.107 04:34, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
 * No, that is just a mirror of Wikipedia. Ours is the original and they properly source us, so it's all kosher. Rmhermen 02:27, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

Groats?
Does anybody really eat a dish called Groats that's made from unprocessed oats? I'm familiar with Oat Groats which I've used to make porridge (since substituted steel-cut oats...) which are hulled oats. Occasionally an unhulled oat slips through the manufacturing process and the hull is nothing a human would want to eat. I'd be surprised if anybody not starving and devoid of all technology would eat a bowl full of it.

Traditions & Usages
Section states "It is standard in some cultures to eat a bowl of porridge the day after a night of communal heavy drinking such as New Year." -- if anyone can clarify this with which cultures that would be useful. --Lost tourist 13:53, 13 November 2006 (UTC)


 * I removed that as unsourced. I also removed a reference to a supposed "National Porridge Day". There appears to have been a commercial campaign by a British porridge producer some years ago, but the date was November, not February, and promotional campaigns don't really belong on this article in any case. --Tony Sidaway 03:32, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

The picture
That picture--the poor oats are absolutely drowned in milk! --Tony Sidaway 03:19, 23 February 2007 (UTC)

Quinoa Porridge
I changed: "ground quinoa flakes mixed with cocoa or cinnamon from ancient Mayan culture. Quinoa is now revitalized as a "supergrain" in some vegan cultures"

to: "ground quinoa flakes mixed with cocoa or cinnamon. Quinoa has been classified a "supergrain" by the UN due to its high protein content."

Because: D.E. Cottrell 05:26, 12 April 2007 (UTC) i do not like porridge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 * 1) Quinoa is native to the Andes and was not used by the Maya;
 * 2) "Mayan" refers to language, not culture;
 * 3) "some vegan cultures" is a vague, strange triplet of words. (What vegan cultures?) I would argue quinoa's status as a "supergrain" or "supercrop" is more important as a classification by the UN based on its nutritional value than its status by "some vegan cultures."

Gruel is not porridge
I've revived gruel as a separate article, since I don't think it's particularly informative to lump anything that is made of cereal boiled in water or milk together under the banner of porridge. One of the important differences is, for example, that gruels are and were commonly drunk rather than eaten with a spoon.

Peter Isotalo 17:14, 26 April 2007 (UTC)

I'd like to point out that the Gruel entry says gruel is made with water or milk while the reference to gruel in this entry says gruel is similar to porridge but not made with milk. The articles appear contradictory.LetsReason (talk) 16:19, 6 May 2015 (UTC)

Riisipuuro/Ruispuuro
These Finnish varieties are commonplace and taken daily. Riisi is just the Finnish for 'rice' and ruis is 'rye' and puuro is any kind of pottage. There's no real sense of their being Christmas foods save only in the sense that people would often like to start the day with something simple given their propensity to be goourmandizing later and I have amended their entries accordingly. Jatrius 16:20, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

The ancient making of porridge/gruel
An economic history text specifically targeting the Dark Ages and addressing the topic of windmills, watermills, and the Roman tenant/landowner relationship, will sometimes mention that tenants will resist paying the high price of having the landowner mill the grain for them, and will instead boil and eat it unmilled. The inference being that the hard outer casing of the grain will only be softened, rather than separated, and will cause the texture of the meal to be considerably coarser. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.3.13.2 (talk) 16:52, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

Manna?
One item on the list is "manna porridge". Is that referring to the biblical food, as per the given link for manna? Or is there some other meaning of the word manna that isn't clear to me? If the latter, we need to change the link to something more appropriate. If the former, I think the item ought to be deleted from the list, unless someone can give a good reason otherwise. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.206.26.72 (talk) 05:22, 2 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm not finnish, but what's in Swedish called "mannagrynsgröt" - and which I guess is the same thing although I'm not fully sure - is actually a type of porridge made from semolina ("mannagryn" in Swedish, and possibly also something similar in Finnish), milk, and sometimes raisins. 213.112.81.33 (talk) 20:52, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Steel cut oats "traditional in Ireland, Scotland and Isle of Man"?
Never heard of steel cut oats before, lived in Scotland and travelled round extensively there, mum's family is from there and we've always had rolled oats. I heard though that pinhead oats are made by this method, is this what the main article refers to?

Interested in the term "traditionally" which I think has little meaning in an encyclopaedia. Does this mean "for the last 5 years"? 10 years? 100? 1000? Effectively I think it is a bit of a meaningless term. I can't believe people were using steel tools to produce porridge 1000 years ago, more likely to be stone milled?

mgaved (talk) 13:40, 21 March 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm Scottish. I have no idea what "steel cut oats" are either. In Scotland we make porridge with pinhead oatmeal - a type of coarse ground oatmeal.  No steel is used in the grinding of pinhead oatmeal - in many cases it's stone ground.  I guess "Traditionally" is in reference to the traditional preparation of porridge from pinhead oatmeal, rather than the modern type breakfast cereal which uses rolled oats, or part cooked/processed rolled oats. Nobody knows how long oats were used to prepare porridge in Scotland or elsewhere - but my guess is a lot longer than 1000 years.  I agree with you - I think this article is crap.--86.128.155.88 (talk) 11:10, 12 February 2013 (UTC)

To what extent is fermentation a salient feature of porridge?
In his book Wild Fermentation, Sandor Ellix Katz presents porridge as a fermented food, saying that the fermentation process results in a final product that is much easier to digest (as well as being somewhat sour). Can anyone confirm the widespread practice (in Europe or America, anyway)of letting oatmeal soak overnight before cooking? Paul Dulaney (20 July 2009)

If you use quick cook porridge oats, you just put oats water and a pinch of salt on to boil and simmer. If you used the coarser "traditional porridge oats" they need soaking overnight because simply boiling them up and simmering for 20 min will not cook them through. This is not fermentation but soaking so they cook more evenly, just like soaking dried beans overnight before you cook them. 151.170.240.10 (talk) 14:40, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

Snail porridge
I don't think snail porridge should be in included in this article at all. It's not a different kind of porridge at all. It's just ordinary oat porridge, albeit seasoned with snails and garnished with ham and leeks. Also, there's no place in the world where you could say "in this region, snail porridge is a traditional dish". It's a specific recipe, invented by a particular chef, and served (as far as I know) nowhere else but at that chef's restaurant. — ABehrens (talk) 18:47, 8 December 2009 (UTC)

I second this. If it's to be mentioned at all, it shouldn't be as a whole other bullet point on the list, 'snail' is not a grain. 90.201.91.228 (talk) 07:56, 19 June 2010 (UTC)

Kheer?
Should Kheer be mentioned? Is it considered a porridge? --198.169.65.1 (talk) 15:09, 21 May 2010 (UTC)

World Porridge Champion
Neal Robertson won the Golden Spurtle as traditional World Porridge Champion in 2010 and the Duncan Hilditch Quaich as World Speciality Porridge Champion in 2011 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.2.125.159 (talk) 18:39, 7 June 2012 (UTC)

Recipes and ratios
Although I felt it was not in the best interest of the article to completely remove the "Recipes and Ratios" section, I have added the WIKIPEDIA:NOT#GUIDE tag as the section is largely written as nothing more than a recipe. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Illini407 (talk • contribs) 22:01, 7 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Glaswegians add jelly??? In what universe would this be? I turn 50 in a month and have never heard of this. Does the person mean Jam?80.43.21.133 (talk) 08:05, 8 September 2015 (UTC) Lance Tyrell

History
The article should be expanded with the history and origin of porridge. Biglulu (talk) 02:47, 15 July 2015 (UTC)

Parritch, Porage, Porrige
The OED source does not verify the other spellings. Please edit. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.211.193.8 (talk) 10:20, 7 July 2016 (UTC)

Varieties of porridge
It might be an idea if the section sub-titled "Varieties of porridge" began with a sentence that read "Varieties of porridge include.." so that people knew that they would be reading a list. Vorbee (talk) 09:24, 1 December 2017 (UTC)

Preparation Section
"The oats are cooked in milk, water or a mixture of the two. Scottish traditionalists allow only oats, water and salt. Traditionally, it is left overnight on a banked-up (barely alight) cooking range or in smouldering fire ashes, possibly due to religious (sabbatarian) restrictions spreading to daily usage. There are techniques suggested by cooks, such as pre-soaking, but a comparative test documented in an article in The Guardian found very little difference in the end result."

'Tests' such as this, whether for sensationalist news media or scientists, in no way 'prove' anything. You cannot prove there is little difference in outcome; you can only prove there is little difference in outcome to those particular singular test subjects.

Fairy-tales
In the U.S., this term is pretty much only used in fairy-tales, and it is kind of a staple there. (Instead of "porridge," we use oatmeal (for oats), kasha (for buckwheat), and "(hot) cereal" to also include things like Cream of Wheat and Cream of Rice. Other hot cereals are less common. Grits are normally eaten on a plate rather than out of a bowl and not considered a cereal.  It would be helpful if we had a source for the American near-exclusive use of the word to fairy-tales so we could add this information. Kdammers (talk) 18:06, 18 June 2022 (UTC)
 * It's certainly odd that the Porridge article is written from a predominantly American perspective even though Americans don't generally use the term. British tourists visiting the US are often puzzled that hotels don't know what porridge is, and expect residents to order 'oatmeal' or 'oats' if they want it. --Ef80 (talk) 16:21, 21 June 2022 (UTC)