I was watching sesame street and they had a fairy tale day … and cookie monster and a new character was asked to make porridge and they didn’t know what porridge was and everyone said it was oatmeal
Now unless I misremember history …… they didn’t eat oatmeal in Europe and looked down on the Irish and Americans when they did
Now I was also told that the modern equivalent. was something like cream of wheat or malt o meal
was I told wrong?
Pease porridge hot!
Pease porridge cold!
Pease porridge in the pot, nine days old!
You can still get plenty of oatmeal in Europe just as you have been able to for centuries, so I don’t see how come your friend said it was not available historically or that even now there is need for a “modern substitute”.
Perhaps the modern gourmet wants to mix it up; why eat oat porridge every single day when you can have rice, wheat, maize, poi, etc.
In the Commonwealth English that I’m familiar with, oats or oatmeal is the dry stuff that’s stored in your cupboard. Once you cook it into something you can eat, it’s porridge (or if you stick a bunch of stuff in it and eat it raw, then I guess it’s muesli)
You misremember history.
Those are *also *porridge. Any cooked starchy grain (or even some legume) is porridge.
I prefer calling it gruel.
A porridge made with oatmeal (i.e., the bran, rather than whole flakes) is going to be pretty unsatisfying. The kind of porridge you’d get in Scotland would be cooked until the flakes release their starch into the liquid: with just oatmeal, it’d be rather gritty in texture.
The porridge my German mom made was barley with hamhocks cooked in it. Mmmmm…
Gruel is thinner than porridge.
In America, “oatmeal” means oat-based porridge, not just the powdered bran.
Ah, one more difference to bear in mind!
Porridge lovers should check out Imgur user onlyporridge. Dude eats porridge every day for breakfast and posts a daily picture. Every picture looks the same, but they are each unique.
If you have an Instant Pot it has a porridge setting. You can turn rice into a perfect gelatinous blob in just one hour.
Samuel Johnson famously defined oats as “a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.”
Yes, you’re wrong.
They’re all porridge and they always have been (Porridge - Wikipedia). In British-based stories, “porridge” usually (but not necessarily) means oat porridge.
I like Boswell’s (apocryphal) retort - "“Yes, and where else will you see such horses and such men?”
^This. Gruel, you drink.
May I please have some more?
In St Martin we sometimes have breakfast at the Gingerbread Cafe. On their breakfast menu they have Oat Meal (two words) for “health conscious” diners. We’ve never ordered it (nor seen anyone else order it). The idea of being “health conscious” while on vacation just doesn’t click for me. I typically go for the Norwegian Eggs Benedict (Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon) and a Bloody Mary.
Does the term “mush” cover porridge, oatmeal, gruel, and all other variations?