Nine Things to do with Porridge.

Waste not, want not. A good rule to live by, Yes? There is, however, something particularly challenging about the congealed paste that is leftover porridge - whether it be the oatmeal or cornmeal variety - is there not?

There are several ideas in Foods and Household Management: a textbook of the household arts, (New York, 1914) by Helen Kinne and Anna Maria Cooley.

The uses of cold cereal. – Never throw away cooked cereals.

The cold cereal is useful in many ways.

(a) Mould in small cups with dates or other fruit, and serve with sugar and cream for luncheon.

(b) Cool corn meal mush in a flat dish, cut it in slices when cold, and brown the slices in a frying pan with beef fat, or a butter substitute. Serve with sugar, molasses, or sirup for breakfast or luncheon.

(c) Rice or hominy may be mixed with a beaten egg, moulded into small cakes, and a browned wither in the frying pan or in the oven.

(d) A small remaining portion of any cereal may be used to thicken soup.

(e) Any cooked cereal may be used in muffins or even yeast bread [the author suggest substituting ½ cup cooked cereal in place of an equal quantity of flour.]

Suggestion 6: Elsewhere in the above cookery book, the authors also suggest leftover cold cereal may be added to the meat mixture when making rissoles.20

Suggestion7: Cereal Pancakes.
Cooked cereal of any kind may be added to a pancake batter by omitting an equal quantity of flour and using not more than 1 cupful of cereal to each cupful of flour.
Mrs. De Graf’s Cook Book (1922)

Suggestion 8: Cereal Griddle Cakes.
1 cup any cold cooked cereal, mashed fine to free from lumps; add 1 beaten egg, yolk and white separate, ½ teaspoon Royal Baking Powder, beat thoroughly. Drop by spoonfuls on hot griddle and serve when brown with syrup.
The Royal Baker and Pastrycook, 1911

Suggestion 9: Oatmeal Fritters

I leave you in the happy expectation that leftover porridge will no longer be a domestic problem in your home.

P.S I know I half-promised some more beer recipes, but - Hey, I get distracted by a better idea some times. They will come, I promise.

Quotation for the Day.

He receives comfort like cold porridge.
William Shakespeare

Cheese and ?

One man’s meat is another man’s poison. So goes the old saying. I am constantly reminded of this as I browse old cookery books. A lovely book with the full title of Our Viands: Whence they come and how they are cooked, with a bundle of old recipes from cookery books of the last century, by Ann Walbank Buckland, (London, 1893) notes the tradition in some parts of England of eating cheese with apple pie and with fruit cake. Nothing strange about that – I grew up in Yorkshire with that tradition.

The book also alludes to another tradition (although sadly, it does not note the locality), of serving cheese with toast and marmalade. I don’t know that tradition personally, but the idea is only a step away from serving quince paste on the cheese platter - isn’t it?

The final combination mentioned however, I cannot get my head around. Cheese floated on a cup of tea. It may be not too far from the Tibetan habit of serving a cuppa with yak butter floated on the top, but it is too far geographically to be relevant to an English tradition. If you know of such an idea, do please let us all know.

One might as well put cheese in the porridge!

Cheese Stirabout
One pound of oatmeal, three ounces of salt, half a pound of cheese cut up, two teaspoonfuls of mustard, two gallons of water; add your oatmeal with the hand, stir it all the time.

This wonderful idea comes from The Family Economist, (described as ‘A Penny Monthly Magazine, devoted to the moral, physical, and domestic improvement of the industrious classes’, published in London in 1848), in a batch of recipes from the Association for Improving the Conditions of the Labouring Classes in Dorsetshire.

Quotation for the Day.

He receives comfort like cold porridge.
William Shakespeare