Oats-so-pointless...?

[MikeF]

When I see people buying this kind of thing I can't help but think that civilisation as we know it is somehow doomed.

cheers

Stem for over £100 - Any similarity? http://www.evanscycles.com/products/deda/trentacinque-35-stem-ec113406#features

I've eaten porridge or at least rolled oats and milk for much of my life. We used to be make it with oatmeal, but that meant soaking it overnight, but it possibly tasted better.

[andrewjoseph]

i like half cup of cheap tesco porridge oats, ½ cup of water, full cup of milk. cook in a saucepan until starting to bubble, take off and leave for a short while. dollop into bowls and add real, grade 1, maple syrup.

[CREPELLO]

Slow cooked whole oats (groats) in an Aga overnight are worth trying. Of course with water and salt

Let's not forget the 'umble British grown Barley grain. Although I haven't tried it as porridge (you can get rolled barley grains) I have tried it as a rice substitute and it really does compare favourably in both taste (subtle) and texture, smooth, creamy with a satisfying "al-dente" bite. Try it in Risotto

[beardy]

Finding Barley grains (for human use) isnt easy, unless they are Pearl Barley or one of the malted and roasted types from a brewing shop.

[ambodach]

Crowdie is a soft cheese made properly by anyone with a cow in the Highlands and Islands using unpasteurised milk and has nothing to do with porridge. Nothing like the rubbish you get nowadays called " crowdie ".
I buy pinhead oatmeal for 99p per kilo and make porridge in the microwave in 7 minutes with a touch of salt. Eat with milk.

[Psamathe]

...
It's hard finding the time to cook when we watch TV for four hours per day.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28677674

Made even worse when half those programs are cookery programs!!! :?
...

So the BBC have dramatically reduced the number of cooking programs (right down to 50% airtime - dramatic reduction). Though still enough for it to be the "British Baking Channel" (BBC).

Ian

[Flinders]

I'm told a slow-cooker makes brilliant porridge overnight, though I'm too disorganised to have tried it yet.

[LollyKat]

... the best (and apparently traditional) way with the cold milk is to have it in a separate cup

if you like the taste of cold milk this is probably the way that best preserves that flavour; if you put the milk into the porridge and cook it, or add the milk to the porridge wholesale, you can get a 'cooked milk' flavour which is quite different.

Nothing to do with the taste of the milk. But if you pour cold milk over a bowl of porridge it chills the surface, so that as you eat there are more and more cold slimy patches...yuk. If you stir the milk in fully that doesn't happen but you lose the contrast of flavours and textures.

Crowdie is a soft cheese made properly by anyone with a cow in the Highlands and Islands using unpasteurised milk and has nothing to do with porridge.

In the Lowlands, though, the name crowdie was applied to a kind of cold brose, and generally to all food of the porridge kind. 'Crowdie-time' was an old name for breakfast time, viz. Burns : 'Then I gaed hame at crowdie-time' (The Holy Fair).

My 2008 Chambers Dictionary gives two definitions for crowdie - note the order:
a mixture of meal and water, brose; a soft curd cheese made from soured milk.

I haven't tried Ale-crowdie -- oatmeal steeped in a mixture of ale, treacle and whisky.....

[geocycle]

Nothing to do with the taste of the milk. But if you pour cold milk over a bowl of porridge it chills the surface, so that as you eat there are more and more cold slimy patches...yuk. If you stir the milk in fully that doesn't happen but you lose the contrast of flavours and textures.

Ah yes, as well as the golden syrup I also go for the cold milk moat around the edge of the bowl along the meniscus made by the porridge. Perfect!

[CREPELLO]

Finding Barley grains (for human use) isnt easy, unless they are Pearl Barley or one of the malted and roasted types from a brewing shop.

You only need to find 'pot barley', which has most of the bran intact. This is widely available, if not quite as common as pearl Barley. Sorry no photo's of barley porridge available yet, so here's one of a barley pilaf I made earlier..

Barley and Wild Garlic Pilaf with Walnuts and Leeks.

[kylecycler]

Porridge made with oatmeal (not rolled oats) and a bit of salt every time. Making it with milk is the ruination of a fine dish. Cold milk, as everyone should know, accompanies porridge once made. But then I am Scottish

+1. And the best (and apparently traditional) way with the cold milk is to have it in a separate cup -- dip the spoon first into the porridge and then into the milk, and only then convey to your mouth... My family always ate it like this and I still do, though these days I prefer brose made with medium oatmeal, or a mix of oatmeal and peasemeal

Sweetened porridge - euughhh!

Haw, hen, you're mair Scottish than me!

Actually, though, my grandpa was a Yorkshireman, and I think that's where the peasemeal brose came from, at least in my family - yellow split peas roasted and ground - I ate it throughout my childhood without ever knowing what it was! Served with a big knob of butter and cold milk.

My granny was Irish, from Dublin; my father was one of five boys and my gran used to make a huge pot of porridge, pour it into a drawer to set and then the boys would just open the drawer and help themselves whenever they were hungry!

Never thought or heard of mixing peasemeal with the oatmeal, but I've just ordered 8 kilos from realfoods as per your link, so I'll give it a try. Peasemeal brose is still a well kept secret - food of the gods - everyone should try it.

[LollyKat]

Never thought or heard of mixing peasemeal with the oatmeal, but I've just ordered 8 kilos from realfoods as per your link, so I'll give it a try. Peasemeal brose is still a well kept secret - food of the gods - everyone should try it.

I hadn't heard of it myself until I was introduced to it by a friend from Caithness - never looked back!

[Mick F]

............ Peasemeal brose is still a well kept secret - food of the gods - everyone should try it.

I might try it . ................. and then spit it out.

Sounds absolutely dreadful.

[ANTONISH]

No mention of Dr Johnson's opinion yet - probably not PC now.

[Brucey]

No mention of Dr Johnson's opinion yet - probably not PC now.

'neigh worries'.....

cheers