Early cereals had so little gluten that they made
pretty dreary bread, but could be very
effectively cooked by our prehistoric ancestors
into soupy stews or "pottages". They did this by
boiling bruised wheat or barley in water or milk
until it swelled.
Flavoured with wild foods such as mushrooms and
herbs, this was the forerunner of porridge as we
know it, comforting empty stomachs while
releasing glucose slowly into the bloodstream.
As a staple subsistence food, pottage clung on
for centuries. In the 14th century, the French
chronicler Jean Froissart attributed the strength
and endurance of Scottish soldiers to their diet
of underdone meat and small, flat cakes made from
a paste of oats and water cooked rapidly on a hot
stone.
Further south, starchy wheat porridges, known as
"furmenty", traditionally accompanied roast
mutton, venison or porpoise at medieval feasts,
its blandness relieved by egg yolks and saffron.
Another grainy soup, made seductive with spices,
wine and dried plums - plum porridge - would
evolve over centuries into our very own Christmas
pudding.
As a breakfast dish, however, porridge took time
to catch on. In the late 17th century, Pepys
still preferred to tuck into a substantial array
of broth, mutton, cold pie or goose for
breakfast.
But his contemporary Kenelme Digbie, an oddball,
charming, mountebank collector of aristocratic
recipes, was among the first to laud the benefits
of oatmeal porridge at the first meal of the day.
Coincidentally, he was also the first to suggest
in print that the far less healthy "two poached
eggs with a few fine dry fried collops of pure
bacon" for breakfast was likely to make a man
very happy indeed.
By Digbie's day, oats had become Scotland's most
important cereal and porridge was already firmly
established as a national dish. Some cooks even
poured it into a mould (or dresser drawer),
allowed it to set and sliced it into a portable
food not entirely unlike polenta.
Throughout the north of England recipes emerged
for regional variants that included hasty
pudding, crowdie, girdbrew and poddish.
In Walter Scott's novel Waverley, the Baron's
table shudders under its load of warm breads,
cakes, eggs, reindeer ham, smoked salmon and,
among the delicacies, "a mess of oatmeal
porridge, flanked by a silver jug which held an
equal mixture of cream and buttermilk".
He was describing just the kind of hearty fare
that Victorian breakfasters most esteemed as the
day's first meal rose to its greatest glory, brim
full with potted meats, mutton cutlets, hams,
toasts and marmalades but with the creamy mass of
a slow-cooked porridge at its centre.
In the post-war, servant-less gloom of the 1920s,
housewives found themselves having to do for
themselves, and to prepare as much as they could
in advance to save time. Miners were striking and
coal was scarce so the porridge, once brought to
the boil, was poured into a wooden box stuffed
with hay, newspaper or blankets to insulate it,
and left to "cook" economically overnight,
By my Sixties childhood, boxes of Kellogg's
crowded the table, while mothers who would not
dream of sending their children to school without
a full, warm stomach relied on almost-instant
Quaker oats.
Recently, though, porridge has been enjoying a
renaissance, reincarnated as one of the
healthiest of health foods, beloved of GI
dieters, with beady-eyed manufacturers following
the trend and offering ready-made porridge in
cartons and even porridge-in-a-sachet (it's Oatso
simple).
2007-04-25 03:34:56
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answer #1
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answered by Naine 1
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There are many types of porridge. The porridge in Goldilocks is cooked oatmeal.
In Asia, the porridge is cooked rice mixed with vegetables and meat.
The japanese has lots of different recipes for porridge.
Like what user drvns2001 said, the indian have their own porridge as well. It's called payasam. It's sweet and gooey but it's more of a dessert. I've pasted some links below of asian porridge, japanese porridge and the indian payasam.
chinese porridge :http://simcooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/ground-pork-porridge-image-2.JPG
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c389/Jaschin/Noodles%20And%20Rice/FishPorridge.jpg
payasam: http://nutriweb.org.my/recipe/cakes_desserts/recipe_payasam.jpg
japanese porridge (look at the left hand side when you click on the link): http://pws.prserv.net/jpinet.orii0/index_eng.html#okayu001
2007-04-24 16:22:05
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answer #2
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answered by Asia 4
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Porridge in South Africa would be "pap", which is made from maize, actually called mealie-meal in South Africa. This is a staple food for many.
This porridge can be eaten with butter and sugar (or honey) and milk optional, or it can be eaten with a type of salsa with a bbq.
This porridge can be made in different ways - depending on the amount of water added to it: crumbed (dry); stiff (medium) and "slap" or sloppy. Depends on your mood...
Ofcourse there is other porridges as well, like oatmeal, weat porridge etc etc.
Hope this helps :)
see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mielie-meal
2007-04-25 14:28:46
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answer #3
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answered by g_its 2
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Wow. That's a real good question. I might not be able to sleep tonight wondering about poor little Goldilocks. Dorthy made it back to Kansas even after ripping off some witch's shoes right? If Dorthy got away with it, maybe Goldilocks will too. Why don't we all just grow up....
2016-04-01 05:47:35
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answer #4
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answered by ? 4
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"Porridge is a simple dish made by boiling oats (normally crushed oats, occasionally oatmeal) or another cereal in water, milk or both. Oat and semolina porridge are the most popular varieties in many countries. Some other cereals used for porridge include rice, wheat, peasemeal, hemp, barley, and cornmeal."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porridge
2007-04-24 15:21:11
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answer #5
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answered by Anonymous
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Porridge is a simple dish made by boiling oats (normally crushed oats, occasionally oatmeal) or another cereal in water, milk or both. Oat and semolina porridge are the most popular varieties in many countries. Some other cereals used for porridge include rice, wheat, peasemeal, hemp, barley, and cornmeal. From Wiki. link below.......
See also Quaker Oats.......below.....
2007-04-24 14:19:56
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answer #6
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answered by bbasingal 5
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Porridge is a thick gruel made of grains like cornmeal, whole wheat, oatmeal, etc.
2007-04-24 14:47:14
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answer #7
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answered by Anonymous
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Oatmeal.
2007-04-24 15:25:34
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answer #8
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answered by Anonymous
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have you heard of this type of porridge? very thin vermicelli noodles, broken and boiled in milk or cream with sugar, raisins, cashew nuts, almonds and saffron? its an indian delicacy.
2007-04-24 15:55:15
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answer #9
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answered by vstya 2
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Boiled oates in milk. Sounds bad but tastes good with lots of sugar.
2007-04-24 14:10:12
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answer #10
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answered by sandfly1234 3
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