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Scotch Oatmeal Porridge

Oatmeal porridge is made of oatmeal, water, and salt only; no sweet milk, butter-milk, nor butter being used in the preparation of the food, although all of these articles may be used as relishes with it. It is best made from meal of medium coarseness. The water must be boiling when the meal is stirred in, and it must be stirred in carefully and gradually, and not thrown in all at once, and the stirring must be continued during the time of boiling, which should not be less than fifteen minutes, and a longer period is much better. If longer boiled, the grain of the meal gets softer, and, of course, the porridge gets thicker. Porridge is more palatable when a plate or other flat dish is used for it than when it is put into a bowl or basin. When a plate is used the moisture evaporates more quickly and equably than it does from a bowl, and the porridge can be eaten sooner after cooking, and the sooner it is eaten the pleasanter it tastes.