5 Things I Learned from the World Porridge Making Championship
Yes, it’s a real thing, and it’s a great reason for a trip to Scotland.
Sabrina Choudhary
Pictured: The 30th annual World Porridge Making Championship
Last spring, my mom found a box of my grandma’s old kitchen tools, including a Scottish utensil called a spurtle, sitting in our basement. My grandma’s version functioned as a wooden spoon, but while writing about it, I found out there was also a dowel-like version used for stirring porridge. More intriguing, I came across the annual World Porridge Making Championship held in the village of Carrbridge in the Scottish Highlands, where contestants compete for the title of championship winner, and a trophy called the Golden Spurtle. I was delighted to learn this competition existed, but I never imagined I’d get to attend.
Fast forward to the end of September. My dad was just as fascinated by this competition, now in its 30th year, and decided the two of us should fly to Scotland to watch it. I’d never been to Scotland before, and I couldn’t pass up such a unique opportunity to visit. So, we met up in Edinburgh and took the train north to Carrbridge. Somewhere along the way, though, we realized: We didn't know much about porridge. We eat a batch of halwa from time to time, but we were never an oatmeal household. Scottish porridge is all about oats.
Lucky for us, the seven-hour competition was welcoming and enlightening. We watched 30 contestants from Australia to Cyprus cook traditional and specialty porridge dishes in 30-minute heats, and we even got to taste some of their creations. We chatted all day with fellow spectators, the porridge chieftain and several contestants, including this year's Golden Spurtle winner Adam Kiani and finalist James Leach, who also happen to be co-creators of the porridge Instagram account @forridge_uk. Here’s what I learned about porridge making through it all.
Pictured: The Golden Spurtle
Stir Clockwise
Legend says that this brings good luck — or keeps away the Devil, depending on who you ask. Some people say the custom dates all the way back to the Druids, who stirred and served food clockwise to follow the sun. I naturally stir counterclockwise, but I’m working on it.
(Quick anecdote: During the competition, one of the contestants asked my dad what he’d learned about porridge so far, and my dad repeated this tip because he’d read it in a book on the flight over. The contestant replied, “That’s it?”)
Details Matter
The only ingredients allowed in the traditional category are oats, water and salt. With only three ingredients, it’s crucial to get the technique right. Factors like the amount of water and salt you use, whether you mix different types of oats and whether you cook the porridge on the stovetop or in the microwave can have a big impact on the final dish. According to Leach, taking the time to make porridge on a stovetop, as the contestants were required to do, will yield the best results.
“Respect the base porridge,” Leach tells me. “Make sure you’ve unplugged the microwave first — put that away.”
Choose Your Oats Wisely
Since the little things make a difference, it’s no surprise that the type (or types) of oats you select can alter the cooking process and outcome. Championship regulations only allow unprocessed oatmeal — pinhead (also known as steel-cut), coarse, medium or fine — and exclude quick and rolled oats. Processed oats are more convenient; they’re often easier to find in grocery stores, and they cook in just a few minutes. In contrast, unprocessed oats can take 45 minutes to cook, according to Leach. The oat type also affects the flavor, texture and color of the porridge, which the contestants were judged on.
Prior to the competition, Leach and Kiani cooked with rolled oats, so they faced a learning curve when developing their recipes. However, Kiani found that the unprocessed porridge was much more flavorful.
“It tastes so much more like oat,” Kiani says. “I hadn’t really thought about what oats taste like. Generally, when you make porridge with rolled oats and milk, it kind of just tastes like a creamy, milky kind of flavor, whereas with this, if you’re using water ... you kind of taste pure porridge, which is quite nice. It’s really tasty.”
Think Beyond Breakfast
Porridge is extremely versatile! In addition to traditional porridge, all contestants had to make a specialty dish using oats — which could mean just about anything. We saw sweet bowls topped with fruit compotes, savory bowls made with cheese, fish or fennel, and things that didn’t resemble oatmeal at all. Entries included a skillet pizza with an oat crust, porridge made into pasta and steamed stovetop chocolate oat cupcakes. I got to taste ingredients I’d never tried before like birch syrup and cloudberry jam. Everything I ate was delicious and impressive. The key is to forget the idea that porridge equals bland mush.
“Porridge is not only objectively tasty, but there’s so much scope to explore in the same way that there is for any other sort of food,” Leach says. “We’ve treated oats like a kind of bottomless pit of creativity to be digging for."
Porridge is More Than a Meal
Porridge has been a part of Scottish cuisine for at least a thousand years, and it’s a beloved dish to this day. I was struck by how many contestants mentioned in their competition bios or during the heats that porridge was a part of their daily routine. The love for porridge was evident in every aspect of the event. The village hall was overflowing with people all day — literally, there was an overflow tent outside with a merch table and a livestream feed. The spectators included curious travelers like my dad and me, friends and family of the contestants, and locals who have been involved with the competition for years. And after three decades, the World Porridge Championship only shows signs of growing.
The Forridge duo has already marked the 31st World Porridge Making Championship in their calendars. In the meantime, they’ve met up with some of their German “porridge colleagues” (Kiani’s term for fellow contestants), and they’re thinking of ways to take their Instagram project offline.
“We’re very proud to be the ambassadors of the oat,” Kiani says.
Pictured: Me in Carrbridge
As for me, I’m practicing my porridge technique with the oats and souvenir spurtle I brought home from Carrbridge. I’ve got a long way to go before I’m ready to enter the championship myself, but that’s okay. It’s all about the journey, anyway.
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