Salt or sugar?

Porridge was a staple for breakfast during winter when I was a child; at home we always had sugar on it, sometimes white, but often thick almost black demerara. It was always made completely with milk, and I remember my mum standing on the doorstep of the kitchen with our bowls, stirring like mad and blowing on it to cool it down, so I guess we must have been rushing to get it eaten and get to school. I used to prefer the demerara which was sometimes lumpy, I guess with damp, and the lumps would be like unexpected pools of deliciousness when the melted at the bottom of the bowl.

When I first heard of people putting salt on porridge it sounded disgusting – but of course for the Scots, Scotland being the home of porridge, it is sugar which is an anathema! When I made porridge for my children, I made it with milk and water, and just a little sugar, or maybe honey or maple syrup. For myself I began to eat it with no sweetener at all.

Not long ago I made porridge and I had an urge to sprinkle on a little salt… not disgusting at all, of course! So now, that’s the way I like it… but I am not sweet-toothed at all… I don’t think my husband or children would take it the Scottish way!

By the way the wooden stirring implement is a spurtle!