Long history behind humble breakfast dish

A nice warm bowl of porridge is a perfect winter breakfast, writes Donna Lee Brien. But what is behind its reliable image?

AS winter gets into full swing, porridge makes an excellent choice for breakfast. For many, porridge is redolent with memories of childhood. It is warm, filling, high in fibre and associated with lowering blood cholesterol.

Its very reliability may also be comforting in unsettling times; as actor Stephen Fry once tweeted: ‘‘Nothing in this world is at it seems. Except, possibly, porridge.’’

Although most commonly used to describe a breakfast dish made with oats boiled with water or milk, any grain so cooked in liquid can be described as porridge. The dish’s history is deep.

Not so paleo

Porridge has an ancient lineage as a staple food, including in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. In 2015, National Geographic reported on an analysis of a Palaeolithic pestle from 33,000 years ago, revealing it was dusted with oat starch. This suggests ancient humans were grinding oats into flour — at odds with the popular Paleo diet trend that holds humans were not eating grains then. The oat remnants on the pestle, found in an Italian cave, may have been cooked into a porridge.

In her book, A History of Food, Maguelonne ToussaintSamat writes that early peoples might also have made something like thick pancakes by cooking various porridgey mixtures on hot stones placed on a fire’s embers.

Oats are traditionally associated with Scotland, although barley and a grain called bere were originally introduced by the Vikings. True to her roots, Scottishborn Australian cookbook writer Margaret Fulton decreed salt was essential for a proper porridge.

Gruel to be kind

Gruel is a thin porridge, which was served in English workhouses in the 19th century. Oliver Twist pleads ‘‘Please Sir, I want some more’’ in Charles Dickens’ second novel. The writer’s description led to gruel being thought of as unappetising.

Yet, gruel also features as a nutritious food in many 19thcentury cookbooks. In A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes (1852), Queen Victoria’s chef Charles Elme Francatelli recommends restorative gruel made with oats or barley.

The 1893 edition of Mrs Beeton’s Everyday Cookery and Housekeeping Book boils just one tablespoon of oats in a pint of water to make a ‘‘dainty’’ dish for the ill. Mrs Beeton notes this digestible liquid can be flavoured with lemon peel or a little grated nutmeg. She notes some invalids will appreciate the addition of a good measure of sherry or port.

Porridge time

The consumption of porridge in British jails led to the 1950s slang ‘‘doing porridge’’ for serving a custodial sentence. This, in turn, suggested the name of the classic 1970s British comedy starring Ronnie Barker.

In the late 1990s, savoury oaten porridge made gastronomic headlines with Heston Blumenthal’s snail porridge from his Michelinstarred restaurant The Fat Duck. The dish of oats cooked in a stock flavoured with ham and snails, served with more snails and garlic butter and topped with a fennel salad, became one of his signature dishes.

Choosing, and cooking with, oats

The most commonly available oat varieties are ‘‘rolled’’, ‘‘quick’’ (or ‘‘quick cooking’’) and ‘‘instant’’.