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Porridge, Rice and Barley
Take a quarter of a pound each of rice and Scotch barley, and wash them thoroughly in boiling water. Strain off, and boil gently in water for three or four hours; strain again, and boil up in a little milk for a short time before wanted. A little cream is a great improvement. This porridge can be flavoured with pepper and salt, but is very nice with brown sugar, treacle, or jam, and when cold is an agreeable accompaniment to stewed fruit.
A plain grain porridge of the sort kept for nurseries, invalids and breakfast tables. Nothing here is difficult, but the quantities of liquid are left entirely to the cook and the boiling time reflects grain that was far less processed than what you will buy today.
- The quantitiesA quarter pound each is 4 oz (about 115 g) of rice and the same of barley — roughly half a cup of each. Together they will swell to feed four generously as a breakfast or pudding.
- Scotch barleyScotch barley (also sold as pot or hulled barley) is husked but not polished smooth, so it holds its shape and takes longer than pearl barley. Pearl barley is the usual substitute and will cook in about half the time.
- Cook the grains separatelyThis is the point the recipe glosses over. Long-grain or pudding rice is soft in 20 to 30 minutes while pot barley wants an hour or more, so boiling them together for three hours means dissolved rice. Simmer the barley until tender, add the rice for its last half hour, or cook each in its own pan and combine.
- WaterNone is specified. Use about four parts water to one part grain, topping up as it is absorbed; the grains should stay loosely covered throughout, and the strainings can be kept as a mild barley water.
- Three or four hoursExcessive for any grain now on sale. Modern pot barley is tender in 60 to 90 minutes and pearl barley in 30 to 40; taste rather than watch the clock.
- Boil up in a little milkAdd roughly a cup of milk at the end and bring it just to a simmer, stirring — milk with starchy grain catches on the pan base quickly. A splash of cream off the heat, as suggested, is the better route to richness.
- TreacleBritish treacle means cane syrup: dark treacle is close to molasses, golden syrup is the light version. Either works, as does brown sugar or jam.
- Served coldThe cold version sets firm as the starch retrogrades. It can be turned out of a wetted bowl or basin and sliced to serve with stewed fruit, which the recipe recommends as an accompaniment.
Barley was an everyday grain of Scotland and northern England, alongside oats, and pot barley remained a kitchen staple through the nineteenth century for broths, puddings and thickening. It led a double life: seasoned with pepper and salt it is a savoury supper dish, and sweetened it becomes a nursery pudding or a mild food for the sick, a category Victorian cookbooks treated with great seriousness. The strained cooking liquid would not have been wasted either ar,, is often traced back to classical medicine and was still being made at home well into the twentieth century. Combining rice with barley gave a smoother, blander result than barley alone, which was the point when the eater was expected to be delicate.