BOOK REVIEW: A Bowl of Porridge by Guthrie Hutton
If we are sick, our mums will usually feed us bowl after
bowl of steaming porridge, whether it be chicken, vegetables or just plain rice
cooked down with some broth. It feels good to swallow this smooth concoction
when we have a sore throat. Even if we aren’t sick, we eat porridge for its
feel good factor, the warmth and the wisps of smoke from a hot bowl of porridge
reminds us of mum’s caring arms. But do we actually know the humble origins of
this comfort food? This book has all you need to know on the history of
porridge and its benefits to you.
The Scots’ consumption of oats is legendary. Oatmeal was
often called meal and porridge is meal thickened in a pot of boiling water.
Porridge even has different names – potage, parritch, parridge, porritch, or in
Gaelic, brochan.
Gruel, brose and sowans were also made by mixing oatmeal and
water, as were some regional variations with strange sounding names like
blerie, bluthrie, gogar, lowlands, milgruel, willins and others.
Porridge is found in the cuisine of almost every country but
the Scots have pulled off a remarkable trick by getting the rest of the world
to recognize oatmeal porridge as the one true porridge, and to regard it as
uniquely Scottish.
The author has looked into his bowl of porridge and come up
with a fascinating history of this humble and nutritious dish, with relevance
for today’s health conscious palate.
Sitting with a cold on bed with a leaden head, I read this
book. At this moment, my mum enters with a bowl of porridge with carrots and
potato and a side dish of salted vegetable omelette. Trust me, if heaven was
this good, I want to be there everyday.
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