flipHirsebrei — Millet Porridge with Honey
Hirsebrei — Millet Porridge with Honey
Why this dish? Leibniz ate quickly and without fuss, preferring his calculations to the pleasures of the table. This millet porridge, the daily and cheap food of Saxon households of his childhood in Leipzig, is exactly the kind of simple dish a hurried scholar would down at his worktable.
A creamy millet porridge cooked long in milk, sweetened with honey and scented with a pinch of cinnamon: comforting, hearty, ready in a flash.
You see, I have never granted the belly the time I owe to the understanding, and a bowl of millet suffices me amply to sustain long vigils. At home, we would let the grain swell in the milk over a gentle fire, stirring without cease, then pour over it a trickle of honey and a suspicion of cinnamon from the trading posts. Believe me, a clear mind is nourished as well by a frugal bowl as by a feast, and the harmony of the world demands no more.
- •Hulled millet — a good handful per person (base cereal)
- •Milk — enough to cover (cooking liquid)
- •Honey — to taste (sweetness)
- •Butter — a knob (binder and fat)
- •Cinnamon — a pinch (spiced aroma)
Hirsebrei — Millet Porridge with Honey
A creamy millet porridge cooked long in milk, sweetened with honey and scented with a pinch of cinnamon: comforting, hearty, ready in a flash.
Why this dish? Leibniz ate quickly and without fuss, preferring his calculations to the pleasures of the table. This millet porridge, the daily and cheap food of Saxon households of his childhood in Leipzig, is exactly the kind of simple dish a hurried scholar would down at his worktable.
You see, I have never granted the belly the time I owe to the understanding, and a bowl of millet suffices me amply to sustain long vigils. At home, we would let the grain swell in the milk over a gentle fire, stirring without cease, then pour over it a trickle of honey and a suspicion of cinnamon from the trading posts. Believe me, a clear mind is nourished as well by a frugal bowl as by a feast, and the harmony of the world demands no more.
Ingredients (period version)
- Hulled millet — a good handful per person (base cereal)
- Milk — enough to cover (cooking liquid)
- Honey — to taste (sweetness)
- Butter — a knob (binder and fat)
- Cinnamon — a pinch (spiced aroma)
Ingredients
- Hulled millet — 150 g (base cereal)
- Milk — 750 ml (cooking liquid)
- Honey — 2 to 3 tbsp (sweetness)
- Butter — 20 g (binder and fat)
- Cinnamon — 1 pinch (spiced aroma)
- Salt — 1 pinch (to enhance)
Method
- Rinse the millet in clear water to remove its bitterness.
- Pour it into the milk with a pinch of salt and bring gently to a simmer.
- Cook over very low heat for 25–30 minutes, stirring often, until thick and creamy.
- Off the heat, stir in the butter, then the honey.
- Serve hot, sprinkled with a pinch of cinnamon.
How it was made : Millet (Hirse) was, before the potato took hold in the 18th century, one of the most common daily porridges in German countryside and towns. It was cooked in water or milk in a cauldron, sweetened with honey by the wealthier, simply salted by the poor.
The contemporary twist : Served in a bowl with a few roasted pears and hazelnut crumbles, the scholar's porridge becomes a very contemporary library breakfast.
Leibniz · Charactorium
