Porridge


Porridge is a type of semi-solid food made by soaking, poaching or boiling, in milk or water, ground, crushed or chopped starchy plants, typically grain. Gruel is a thinner version of porridge, and congee is a savoury variation of porridge of Asian origin.
Porridge is often cooked with added flavourings such as sugar, honey, fruits or syrup to sweeten the cereal, or it can be mixed with spices, meat or vegetables to make a savoury dish. It is usually served hot in a bowl or a pot, depending on its consistency. Oat porridge, known as oatmeal in North America, is one of the most common types; while rice porridge is more common in Asia.

Type of grains

The term "porridge" is used in British English specifically for oatmeal. This is a hot mixture of oatmeal or oats slowly cooked with water or milk. It is typically eaten for breakfast by itself or with other ingredients, typically salt, sugar, honey, fruit, milk, cream, or butter.
Other grains used for porridge include rice, wheat, barley, corn, triticale and buckwheat. Many types of porridge have their own names, such as congee, polenta and poi.

Conventional uses

Porridge can be eaten for any meal of the day. Porridge is eaten in many cultures around the world as a common snack or as breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Nutrition

Unenriched porridge, cooked by boiling or microwave, is 84% water, and contains 12% carbohydrates, including 2% dietary fiber and 2% each of protein and fat. In a reference amount, cooked porridge provides 71 calories and contains 26% of the Daily Value for manganese, with no other micronutrients in significant content.

Health effect

A 2014 review found that daily intake of at least 3 grams of oat beta-glucan lowers total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels by 5–10% in people with normal or elevated blood cholesterol levels. Beta-glucan lowers cholesterol by inhibiting cholesterol production, although cholesterol reduction is greater in people with higher total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol in their blood. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration issued a final ruling in 2015 stating that food companies can make health claims on food labels for products containing soluble fiber from whole oats, noting that 3.0 grams of soluble fiber daily from these foods may reduce the risk of heart disease. To qualify for the health claim, the food that contains the oats must provide at least 0.75 grams of soluble fiber per serving.

Varieties

Maize

  • Maize porridge:
  • *Atole, a Mexican dish of corn flour in water or milk.
  • * Champurrado, a Mexican blend of sugar, milk, chocolate and corn dough or corn flour. The Philippine dish tsampurado is similar, with rice instead of maize.
  • * Cir, păsat or mămăligă are all Romanian maize porridges.
  • * Colada, a hot dish prepared with corn starch, milk, sugar and cinnamon in Colombia and Ecuador.
  • * Cornmeal mush, a traditional dish in southern and mid-Atlantic US states.
  • * Cornmeal porridge, a traditional dish served for breakfast throughout the Caribbean and among Rastafarians. A blend of fine semolina with milk or water and often with all spice and sugar.
  • * Farina or papilla, a traditional Dominican dish of porridge maize or grass peas.
  • * Gachas, a Spanish porridge of maize or grass peas. Often garnished with roasted almonds and croutons of bread fried in olive oil.
  • * Gofio, a Canary Islands porridge of toasted coarse-ground maize. Made from roasted sweetcorn and other grains, used in many ways in parts of the world from which Canary Islanders have emigrated.
  • * Grits, ground hominy, is common in the southern United States, traditionally served with butter, salt and black pepper. Sometimes, it is also prepared with cheese.
  • * Kačamak, a maize porridge from the Balkans.
  • * Kānga pirau, a fermented corn porridge dish that is made and consumed by the Māori people of New Zealand
  • * Mazamorra, a maize porridge from Colombia's Paisa region made with whole maize grains that can be sweet or salty.
  • * Polenta, an Italian maize porridge which is cooked to a solidified state and sliced for serving.
  • * Rubaboo is made from dried maize and peas with animal fat and was a staple food of the Voyageurs.
  • * Shuco, a Salvadoran dish of black, blue or purple corn flour, ground pumpkin seeds, chili sauce and red cooked kidney beans, which was traditionally drunk out of a hollowed-out gourd at early morning, especially coming from a hunting or drinking trip.
  • * Suppawn, also called, and better known as, hasty pudding, was common in American colonial times and consisted of cornmeal boiled with milk into a thick porridge. Still eaten in modern times, it is no longer necessarily corn-based.
  • * Žganci, a maize porridge prepared in the Kajkavian counties of Croatia and in Slovenia.
  • * Api Morado, warm breakfast drink made of purple corn.

    Millet

  • Millet porridge:
  • * Foxtail millet porridge is a staple food in northern China.
  • * A porridge made from pearl millet is the staple food in Niger and surrounding regions of the Sahel.
  • * Middle Eastern millet porridge, often seasoned with cumin and honey.
  • * Munchiro sayo, a millet porridge eaten by the Ainu, a native people of northern Japan.
  • * Milium in aqua was a millet porridge made with goat's milk that was eaten in ancient Rome.
  • * A ragi porridge, by name 'jaava' is consumed as a breakfast item during summer season in the Telugu speaking region of India
  • * Koozh is a millet porridge commonly sold in Tamil Nadu.

    Oat

  • Oat porridge, traditional and common in the English-speaking world, Germany, and the Nordic countries. Oat porridge has been found in the stomachs of 5,000-year-old Neolithic bog bodies in Central Europe and Scandinavia. Varieties of oat porridge include:
  • * Groats, a porridge made from unprocessed oats or wheat.
  • * Gruel, very thin porridge, often drunk rather than eaten.
  • * Yod Kerc'h, a traditional oat porridge from the north-west of France, primarily Brittany, made with oats, butter and water or milk.
  • * Owsianka, an east European traditional breakfast made with hot milk, oats and sometimes with sugar and butter.
  • * Porridge made from rolled oats or ground oatmeal is common in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, North America, Finland and Scandinavia. It is known as simply "porridge" or, more commonly in the United States and Canada, "oatmeal". In the US, oat and wheat porridge can both be called "hot cereal". Rolled oats are commonly used in England, oatmeal in Scotland and steel-cut oats in Ireland. In the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, cooks made burgoo for the men for breakfast, from coarse oatmeal and water.
  • * Porridge – Anglophone Caribbean Also known as Pap. The most common type is corn meal, and they are always made with milk. Varieties include oatmeal, grated green plantain, barley, cream of wheat, sago. Oatmeal porridge is often flavoured with cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar or almond essence.
  • * Stirabout – Irish porridge, traditionally made by stirring oats into boiling water
  • * Terci de ovăz, traditional oatmeal in Romania.
  • * Zabkása, traditional oatmeal in Hungary.

    Types of oats

Oats for porridge may be whole, cut into two or three pieces, ground into medium or fine oatmeal or steamed and rolled into flakes of varying sizes and thicknesses. The larger the pieces of oat used, the more textured the resulting porridge. It is said that, because of their size and shape, the body breaks steel-cut oats down more slowly than rolled oats, reducing spikes in blood sugar and making the eater feel full longer. The US Consumer Reports website found that the more cooking required, the stronger the oat flavor and the less mushy the texture.
Oats are a good source of dietary fibre; health benefits are claimed for oat bran in particular, which is part of the grain.

Preparation

The oats are cooked in milk, water or a mixture of the two. Scottish traditionalists allow only oats, water and salt. There are techniques suggested by cooks, such as presoaking, but a comparative test found little difference in the end result. Various flavourings can be used and may vary widely by taste and locality. Demerara sugar, golden syrup, Greek yoghurt and honey are common. Cold milk or single cream may be used.

Rice

  • Rice porridge:
  • * Champorado, a sweet chocolate rice porridge in Filipino cuisine. It is traditionally made by boiling sticky rice with cocoa powder, giving it a distinctly brown color and usually with milk and sugar to make it taste sweeter.
  • * Congee, a common East Asian, Southeast Asian and South Asian dish of boiled-down rice:
  • ** In Bangladesh congee is prepared simply as a porridge, Whole rice with a bit of salt, it is known as "Jao" eaten as wholesome diet for the sick. Added date tree sugar and garam masala it is called "Kheer", Or, cooked with sugar, milk, nuts, raisins, cardamom, cassia, cinnamon, Indian bay leaf, etc. it is called "Paiesh". Both "Kheer" & "Paiesh" are eaten as dessert.
  • ** In Sri Lanka congee is prepared with many ingredients. As a porridge, Sinhala people mainly use coconut milk with rice flour, it is known as "Kiriya."
  • ** Chinese congee, called zhou in Mandarin, and juk in Cantonese, can be served with a century egg, salted duck egg, pork, cilantro, fried wonton noodles or you tiao, deep-fried dough strips. Meiling porridge made of rice, yam and soya-milk, named after Soong Mei-ling, is a classic dish of Nanjing.
  • ** Indonesian and Malaysian congee, called bubur, comes in many regional varieties, such as bubur sumsum, made from rice flour boiled with coconut milk then served with palm sugar sauce; and also bubur manado or tinutuan, a rice porridge mixed with various vegetables and eaten with fried salted fish and chili sauce. There is also congee made from mung beans, called bubur kacang hijau or congee with chicken called bubur ayam
  • ** Japanese congee, called kayu, is mixed with salt and green onions. Often accompanied with variety of foods such as tsukemono, shiokara and so on.
  • ** Korean congee, called juk, can have added seafood, pine nuts, mushrooms, etc.
  • ** Thai congee, called "khao tom", or "Jok", can have added coriander, preserved duck eggs, fish sauce, sliced chili peppers, pickled mustard greens or salt cabbage preserves, red pepper flakes, etc.
  • ** Vietnamese congee, called cháo, can be made with beef or chicken stock and contains fish sauce and ginger. It is often served with scallions and fried sticks of bread.
  • ** Filipino congee, called lugaw or arroz caldo, contains saffron, ginger and sometimes meat. Less common ingredients include boiled eggs, pepper, chilies, puto, lumpiang toge, tofu, fish sauce, calamansi sauce, toyo and spring onions. It is common as a street food.
  • * Cream of Rice, a brand of American rice porridge, boiled in milk or water with sugar or salt.
  • * Ambrosia Creamed Rice, a UK brand of tinned rice dessert, made of rice, sugar and milk/cream, since 1937.
  • * Payasam, a traditional Indian sweet dish, made of rice boiled in milk.
  • * Frescarelli, an Italian dish made of overcooked rice and white flour, typical of Marche.
  • * Orez în lapte, a dessert made with rice boiled in milk with sugar, sometimes flavored with cinnamon, jam, cocoa powder, etc.
  • * Tejberizs, made with milk, sugar and usually vanilla. Served with cocoa and sugar
  • * Risengrynsgrøt or simply risgrøt, a warm dish made with white rice cooked in milk. Served with cinnamon, sugar, and a small knob of butter.
  • * Riskrem or rice cream dessert, traditional dessert during the Christmas season. Made with cold rice porridge mixed with whipped cream and sweetened with sugar. In Sweden, sometimes mixed with oranges. In Denmark, it is typically mixed with vanilla and chopped almonds, and typically served with hot or chilled cherry sauce. In Norway, the dessert is served with chilled strawberry or raspberry sauce.