Guest guest Posted April 14, 2009 Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 Porridge: the king of superfoods Let porridge, that cheap and cheerful stomach filler, solve all manner of problems. By Elizabeth Grice Last Updated: 7:44AM BST 14 Apr 2009 Porridge: the king of superfoods Photo: ANDREW CROWLEY There is only so much rampant masculinity you can take over breakfast and, for my money, it is reassuringly confined to the man on the packet of Scott's Porage Oats. The image of that testosterone-packed Scotsman, shot-putting his way through our childhoods and still poised today, muscles rippling, with the breeze up his kilt, lifted the grey Bank Holiday Monday morning, confirming that all is well with the world. Even a recessionary one. When the athletic Highlander was adopted as a symbol of the original Porage Oats in 1924, porridge was an austerity food, associated with prisons and cold winter mornings. Cooked with water or milk and a pinch of salt, it was Good For You in a robust, no-nonsense sort of way because it filled you up cheaply. Every mother knew that. There was no suspicion of the miraculous properties now being ascribed to it. And certainly no hint, other than subliminally, that the virile shot-putter in his white vest and big socks had breakfasted on nature's own Viagra. Now it looks as though he was fulfilling his symbolism all along. Better sex, sharper brains, longevity, lower cholesterol levels, weight loss... there is practically no modern health obsession that the humble oat does not address. As I ladled oats and nuts into a mixing bowl yesterday – the first stage of a recession-busting muesli – my eye was caught by yet another fantastic claim by scientists: porridge oats help children to concentrate at school. Sales are soaring, especially among 25 to 34-year-olds. This winter, the Quaker Oats factory in Fife (which also produces Scott's Porage Oats and the microwavable Oats So Simple) had its biggest "sales uplift" in its 110-year history – an increase of between 18 and 38 per cent, depending on the product. It is no longer enough to say that porridge fills and comforts an empty stomach. There seems to be nothing this superfood cannot do except improve interest rates. Oats are good for the heart and libido. They lower blood pressure, absorb toxins, scour artery walls. They release the testosterone that governs the sexual drive in men and women. Scott's Porage Oats must have known this when it used a 6ft 8in former lumberjack, Rory McCann, to press the sexual advantage in a cinema and television advertisement. "Porridge keeps me frisky," he said. The phrase "getting your oats" meant exactly what we'd always suspected. Cereal-based cooked mush (pottage) has been basic fare for centuries, a subsistence food for all seasons. Samuel Johnson may have mocked it as "a grain which in England is given to horses but in Scotland supports the people" but he admitted to Boswell that he only said it "to vex them". Porridge didn't feature on a gentleman's table as the first meal of the day until the end of the 17th century. By then oats had become a staple in Scotland, subject to regional variations such as the use of whey or buttermilk instead of water. Sometimes, it was poured into a mould, allowed to set and then sliced to take out into the fields. In 1929, Marian McNeill produced "The One and Only Method" for making porridge, where coarse oats were added to boiling water "in a steady rain from the left hand, stirring it briskly the while with the right, sunwise." A special stick, known as a spurtle, or theevil, was used to stir it. Scots purists believe that only salt and milk or cream should be allowed as accompaniments; the English, supposedly the healthier race, go for sacrilegious sugar. But the Scots should not be proprietorial. As Alan Davidson points out in The Oxford Companion to Food, porridge is a descendant of pottage, a thoroughly English institution, and the fact that most of us buy porridge oats in a box bearing a picture of a kilted Scotsman should not trick us into thinking that the Scots invented it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 14, 2009 Report Share Posted April 14, 2009 We don't have kilted Scots on our oatmeal boxes -- and I don't even buy my oats in a box -- but oatmeal is one of my favorite foods. I didn't grow up eating oats often, but for years I've eaten oatmeal for breakfast. I prefer it uncooked, with water or ricemilk or soymilk, sometimes soy yogurt, and sometimes fruit. This morning, it was oats with vanilla soymilk and homemade applesauce. It's so filling and satisfying that I usually don't think of eating again until late afternoon. If I've made muffins, sometimes I have a couple of those instead. A few months ago, the price of bulk oats increased 20-30 percent, so I briefly considered eating something else, but it feels like something is missing when I don't have oats in the morning. What does everyone else eat for breakfast? At 6:17 PM +0100 4/14/09, jo.heartwork wrote: Porridge: the king of superfoods Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 15, 2009 Report Share Posted April 15, 2009 One of our has a Scotsman on it because it is 'Scotts Prrodige Oats'. One of the others is called Quaker Oats. I'm not so keen on oatmeal, I like the oats whole. I used to eat porridge for breakfast every morning - now I eat it at weekends. I like it made with soymilk and a teaspoonful of golden syrup. Mostly in the week I take nuts or fruit to work for breakfast, as I can't eat before I leave for work. Jo , yarrow wrote: > > We don't have kilted Scots on our oatmeal boxes -- and I don't even > buy my oats in a box -- but oatmeal is one of my favorite foods. > > I didn't grow up eating oats often, but for years I've eaten oatmeal > for breakfast. I prefer it uncooked, with water or ricemilk or > soymilk, sometimes soy yogurt, and sometimes fruit. This morning, it > was oats with vanilla soymilk and homemade applesauce. It's so > filling and satisfying that I usually don't think of eating again > until late afternoon. > > If I've made muffins, sometimes I have a couple of those instead. A > few months ago, the price of bulk oats increased 20-30 percent, so I > briefly considered eating something else, but it feels like something > is missing when I don't have oats in the morning. > > What does everyone else eat for breakfast? > > > > At 6:17 PM +0100 4/14/09, jo.heartwork wrote: > Porridge: the king of superfoods > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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