Breakfast (the first meal, a sober start to the day)
Oatmeal Porridge with Treacle
EverydayDocumented☕ 🍯facile30 min
A thick oatmeal porridge, cooked long in salted water, topped with a drizzle of black treacle and a splash of milk. Warm comfort of the early morning, simple and fortifying, that stays with you until dinner.
Breakfast (the first meal, a sober start to the day)
A thick oatmeal porridge, cooked long in salted water, topped with a drizzle of black treacle and a splash of milk. Warm comfort of the early morning, simple and fortifying, that stays with you until dinner.
Allow me to offer you, at the first hour, this bowl of oats, which I hold to be the most honest of foods. It must be cooked very slowly, stirred with a patient hand, for oats reward constancy and punish haste — a lesson that reaches far beyond the pot. I pour a thread of treacle and a little milk, and ask for nothing more: a clear mind is nourished frugally. See how such a common thing suffices to set the soul in order for the day's labour.
Ingredients
- •Oatmeal (coarse-ground) — a good handful per person (cereal, base)
- •Spring water — three times the volume of oats (cooking)
- •Salt — a pinch (seasoning)
- •Black treacle — a drizzle (sweetness)
- •Milk — to taste (serving)
How it was made : In 19th-century homes, porridge simmered from dawn on the peat or coal fire, sometimes soaked overnight to save time. It was always salted; refined sugar remained expensive, so it was sweetened with treacle, honey, or a spoonful of jam. The cold milk poured in a ring around the hot porridge is an old Northern custom.
Sources : Isabella Beeton, The Book of Household Management, 1861 · Eliza Acton, Modern Cookery for Private Families, 1845