oat porridge, buckwheat porridge, semolina porridge

[GeneD]

oat porridge, buckwheat porridge, semolina porridge

Are the names of porridges above common? What do you call them in everyday speech?

 

[bhaisahab]

I have never heard of buckwheat porridge or semolina porridge. For me, porridge is made with oats.

 

[emsr2d2]

In the UK, when people say "porridge", we generally mean the one made of oats (oatflakes, rolled oats, jumbo oatflakes, oatmeal). People who make their morning porridge from a different grain usually specify it. On cold winter mornings, I have quinoa porridge made with hemp milk and rice syrup. (It's delicious, vegan and healthy!)

 

[bhaisahab]

In the UK, when people say "porridge", we generally mean the one made of oats (oatflakes, rolled oats, jumbo oatflakes, oatmeal). People who make their morning porridge from a different grain usually specify it. On cold winter mornings, I have quinoa porridge made with hemp milk and rice syrup. (It's delicious, vegan and healthy!)

Ah, but does your quinoa come from Peru or Bolivia and contribute to the impoverishment/lack of affordable nutrition for the peasant population in those countries?

 

[emsr2d2]

Ah, but does your quinoa come from Peru or Bolivia and contribute to the impoverishment/lack of affordable nutrition for the peasant population in those countries?

It's by Hodmedod's and it's grown in the UK!!!

In case anyone's curious, porridge can be made from a variety of grains/flakes. At the moment, the most popular alternatives to oats are quinoa, buckwheat, brown rice, amaranth and barley.

 

[GeneD]

Very interesting, indeed! It looks as if you don't cook this meal. Or do you? And buckwheat porridge (if I can call it that) isn't very common either, right? (By the way, I've found a possible synonym for "buckwheat porridge" ("kasha"). Surprisingly, in Russian, "kasha" refers to "porridge" in its broader sense. )

 

[bhaisahab]

It's by Hodmedod's and it's grown in the UK!!!

That's great! I know that there are a few growers in France and England but 90% of what is available in shops comes from Peru or Bolivia. I firmly believe that no-one in Europe needs to eat quinoa and if it is not grown here we shouldn't buy it. The increasing consumption of that grain in Europe is causing prices to skyrocket in the countries where it was a staple for poor people. The people who were dependant on it can no longer afford it.

 

[GeneD]

On cold winter mornings, I have quinoa porridge made with hemp milk and rice syrup. (It's delicious, vegan and healthy!)

I didn't know about hemp milk before you mentioned it, and I naturally got curious about what it was and found that it's made from cannabis! Now I'm even more curious. Does this milk have any mood improving effect on cold winter mornings?

 

[bhaisahab]

No. It's from a low THC, non-psychoactive variety of Cannabis Sativa. There are higher THC varieties of Cannabis Sativa, but most of the 'mood enhancing' cannabis is Cannabis Indica. Look here for a description of THC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahydrocannabinol

 

[GoesStation]

I see the American definition is broader: ​https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/porridge

We hardly ever use the word in American English.

 

[GoesStation]

Very interesting, indeed! It looks as if you don't cook this meal. Or do you? And buckwheat porridge (if I can call it that) isn't very common either, right? (By the way, I've found a possible synonym for "buckwheat porridge" ("kasha"). Surprisingly, in Russian, "kasha" refers to "porridge" in its broader sense. )

Among the small minority of Americans who eat it, kasha is (I think) the usual word for buckwheat porridge.

 

[emsr2d2]

Very interesting, indeed! It looks as if you don't cook this meal. Or do you? And buckwheat porridge (if I can call it that) isn't very common either, right? (By the way, I've found a possible synonym for "buckwheat porridge" ("kasha"). Surprisingly, in Russian, "kasha" refers to "porridge" in its broader sense. )

You do cook it. You treat the flakes of those other grains in the same way as porridge oats. You put them in a pan with milk and cook them on a low heat until most of the milk has been soaked up and then you eat it hot. Some people add a small amount of cold milk around the island of porridge.

The alternatives to oats are becoming more popular all the time. It's partly down to the fact that more people are being diagnosed with coeliac disease so they're having to avoid gluten-containing foods. Although oats don't naturally contain gluten, they are particularly susceptible to cross-contamination during the growing process and during processing. Brown rice, buckwheat, quinoa and amaranth are great gluten-free alternatives.

In the UK, kasha is roasted buckwheat groats.

 

[GoesStation]

And know very well that oats are a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.

 

[SoothingDave]

In the US "oatmeal" is made from oats. "Cream of Wheat" is a brand name for semolina used as a hot cereal.

In the south, there is "grits," made from corn/maize.

 

[GoesStation]

In the south, there is "grits," made from corn/maize.

Specifically, grits are made from hominy, which is dried corn/maize with the skin removed from the kernels by soaking them in a strong alkali solution. The Mexicans or South Americans who invented it (long before Columbus's voyages) had no way to know this, but this processing also liberates niacin, making hominy much more valuable nutritionally.

Ground hominy can be mixed with water and shaped into variously-shaped cakes which hold together much better than similar cakes made from whole cornmeal.

 

[Rover_KE]

For the sake of completeness, let's not forget gruel – served to orphans and the destitute in workhouses – for which Oliver Twist famously asked for more.

gru•el

n.

]​

1. a thin cooked cereal made by boiling meal, esp. oatmeal, in water or milk.

(Collins)

 

[GoesStation]

All he ever got was gruel.

 

[GeneD]

And know very well that oats are a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.

I didn't know this old dictionary definition, and, I must confess, it's now challenging the stereotype in me which many other Russophones have after watching "The Hound of the Baskervilles" film. The characters often ate porridge (oatmeal) in the film, maybe too often... Anyway, a myth was born that the English always (or often, at least) have (or had in the past) oatmeal for breakfast. Whether it's a myth or not I don't know, but the mentioned dictionary definition hints it is.

On the other hand, the fact that the word "porridge" is reserved (by BrE speakers) mostly for oatmeal may suggest that oatmeal was a very important meal in the past. And interestingly, having just looked this word up again in the dictionary, I found the following definition for "porridge": a hotfood made from oatmeal and milk or water, often eaten at breakfast. So maybe it's not a myth. What do you say? What do you think of it?

 

[GoesStation]

The Scots of Jonson's day, I believe, routinely ate oats at meals other than breakfast. They still do, though I have no idea how often, in Scottish delicacies like haggis. It may be that the English had not yet adopted the habit of eating oatmeal for breakfast.

 

[emsr2d2]

Porridge, and its over-processed, sugary, strangely advertised poor cousin, Ready Brek, was and still is a pretty standard breakfast food for many people in the UK.
Edit: Here's the first Ready Brek advert I remember.