Yes, you read right – there’s a World Porridge Making Championship here in Scotland and it’s a seriously fierce competition.
You might think of porridge as an underwhelming breakfast but don’t expect the lumpy stuff your gran served you here.
Every year thousands descend on the wee Highland village of Carrbridge every October where the competition takes place and it gains global press coverage – this year is its 26th competition and every year it’s getting bigger and bigger.
Okay, so are you a dab hand when it comes to oats?
At the Golden Spurtle (the name of the championships), potential porridge champions can apply for one of two competitions.
The first is the traditional round where only water, salt and oats are allowed and the winner is decided by a few factors: taste, texture and colour.
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The speciality round is where things get off the wall – the rules are simple, use porridge to create something completely unexpected.
They’ve seen mussel and spinach stew porridge, dishes that pay homage to competitors’ heritage, sticky toffee porridge and pinhead oatmeal frittatas with spring onion and parmesan in the past.
Organisers have issued a stark reminder to encourage competitors to closely-guard their secrets prior to the event.
For the first time ever, and as a testament to the competition’s growth – the World Porridge Making Championship will be taking place across two days for the first time ever.
Contestants on both Friday and Saturday of the porridge making weekend will vie to produce the best traditional porridge, with competitors also being judged on the best speciality dish.
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Friday 11 October’s Silver Spurtle event is reserved for young people aged between eight and 16, with the main Golden Spurtle event for adults to take place on Saturday October 12.
Scotland and porridge go hand-in-hand, it’s one of our national dishes and quite honestly, everyone else is missing out.
The origin of porridge is lost in the mists of time. Archaeologists have found it in 5000-year-old corpses, so we know it’s at least that old.
Back in the day, many Scottish kitchens had a dresser. Some of these dressers – allegedly - had a porridge drawer.
This drawer would be lined and cleaned out at the start of the week and the family porridge would then be made for the whole week and poured into the drawer to set and cool.
The family would be given slices of cold porridge for various meals throughout the week with the process starting again on the Monday.
Yeah... we’ll take ours hot thanks.
What is a spurtle?
Most countries have a dish that resembles the porridge we know today – it’s made from a variety of ingredients – barley in the Far East; semolina in the southern hemisphere; corn in the Americas (grits) and juk in Korea.
Competitors quite literally come from far and wide to battle it out to win the Golden Spurtle, with competitors flying in from all over the globe to Carrbridge every year.
So what is a spurtle you ask?
The spurtle is a traditional tool made for stirring porridge whilst it is being cooked.
It is designed to eradicate the lumps that can form when cooking – it’s rod shaped, usually about 25cm long and is always made from wood.
When using a spurtle, tradition has it that it should be used with the right hand and stirred clockwise (to keep out the devil).
The World Porridge Making Championships take place on the 11th and 12th of October in Carrbridge.
Details on how to enter are available at www.goldenspurtle.com.
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