The humble Scottish breakfast with rich cultural significance

0:00This message comes from Charles Schwab with their original podcast, Choiceology. Choiceology is a show about the psychology and economics behind people's decisions. Download the latest episode of choice. web.com slash podcast. Today on State of the World, the humble Scottish breakfast with rich cultural significance.

0:24You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon. On today's episode, we're going to the Scottish Highlands. It's a story about porridge. Nope, stay with me. What we in the U.S. might think of as oatmeal has deep roots in Scottish culture. The traditional recipe has only three ingredients, oats, water, and salt. So how distinct can different bowls of porridge be? Oh, you have no idea. NPR's Lauren Frayer takes us to Scotland for our education. In a woodworking shed behind his house, Bob Shorter is carving a spirtle.

1:09A spirtle traditionally, It's kind of tapered with a rounded end. And which is the end that goes in the pot? This end, so you hold it here. It's a wooden wand used in kitchens across Scotland. To stir your porridge. So Hilary would be better to explain. It's this shape. You can get right into the edge of the pan and you get a really good stir. His wife Hilary Shorter cautions about stirring the spurtle clockwise only. Otherwise you'll let the devil into it. Wait, what was that? You never stir your porridge anticlockwise, otherwise you're in trouble. And she shows me the typical Scottish way to cook porridge.

1:50You bring it to a fast boil until it says Alapul, Alapul, Alapul. That's the name of a village on the West Coast. And then you take it down to a low heat until it says Poulu, Poulu, Poulu. And you can hear the sound. Yeah. And it's like frothy. It's got like a kind of white foamy. It's thickening up now. It smells really nutty. It smells really starchy and nutty, yeah. It will be very hot. Okay. Let's see if I can balance the microphone and eating porridge at the same time. Wow, it's very kind of like gelatinous. Now, I can't believe this doesn't have milk in it. No milk, no. It's so creamy. The spurtle also lends its name to a quintessential Scottish competition called the Golden Spurtle, a.k.a.

2:41Welcome to the 32nd World Porridge Making Championship. That's a recording of last year's event, organized by... Alan Rankin, porridge chieftain. Best job title I've ever had. Rankin let me tag along on preparations for this year's porridge competition. These are the tasting bowls. Which attracts oatmeal aficionados from dozens of countries. It's like a mini World Cup. We have Bulgaria, Chechnya, Mexico, Slovenia, Spain, Venezuela. We had a guy from Venezuela want to come. Every October, they all descend on the village of Car Bridge, which actually has two bridges, one pub, no stoplights, and about 700 residents.

3:30So we have a pipe band. And they process up through the village and there's flags and banners and all sorts of things and everybody gathers in front of the village hall and with a little dram. We are now going to bring the tosses to the porridge. We've got a local whiskey ambassador that does a toast and then battle commences at 10.30. Game on. The event is free. It's held in the 19th century Village Hall. Spectators arrive early to nab folding chairs or watch the battle by live stream from overflow rooms. Inside. One end beyond the tartan ribbon, we have six tables. With double burner stations where 30 contestants cook porridge in heats, only six progress to the finals.

4:22The rules are strict. You can only use steel cut pinhead oats. They're rounder and nuttier than flat rolled oats, or I should say this quietly, instant oats you put in the microwave. But you can use any salt, pink Himalayan, kosher, sea salt. Some people bring their own water from a mountain spring or backyard well. There's a secret numbering system. Oh, this is the secret judging chamber. And it's all blind tasting. Gareth Paschke runs the local pub and got pulled in to judge one year when a food critic got ill. I was astounded by the variety of different flavours and textures and colours. I just thought, you know, porridge is porridge.

5:04Quite often we'd have a taste and we'd go, that's a lovely bowl of porridge. I'd love to have a second spoonful, but I know I've got 50 left to go, so I'm not gonna. Now he loves porridge, but says even he didn't eat it afterward for at least a few days. Judges score each bowl on flavour, including how salty or starchy, along with texture, consistency and something called mouthfeel. We take it very, very seriously. This is a world champion, after all, that we're creating. Sarah Rankin, no relation to porridge chieftain Alan Rankin, is a former finalist on the MasterChef TV show. She emcees this event, which she sees as a celebration of her country's amber waves of grain, the humble oat.

5:45It's one of the biggest crops. You know, we suffered famine. We have a wet climate and acidic soils. So oats are very much suited. But also, it's much more hardy. So in a bad winter, there will be a harvest and everyone could eat it. So the animals could eat it, the livestock could eat it and the people could eat it and it was sustaining. The bombshell at last year's competition. The golden spurtle for the 2025 World Potage Champion goes to Sven Selhelm. Was the trophy winner Sven Sellholm from Norway used a rare type of oats brought back from obscurity, if not extinction? A Norwegian oat called the black oat, which is an ancient grain that sort of vanished in the 1800s and then was picked up again by some farmers in Norway around 2016.

6:37They are darker than the normal oats. Appetizing color, really. There's a little bit of bite to it, so it's sort of crunchy. I think that was the deciding factor. This year, he will defend his title against, amongst others, a handful of American competitors who are in training to up their porridge game and make the long journey by plane, train, then bus or taxi to reach this Highlands Village for the competition this October. My name is Stuart Willett, porridge enthusiast, originally from Omaha, Nebraska. I have an entire notebook at this point of all of the test runs. and it's surprising how much of a variety you can get with three ingredients.

7:17I'm Josh Kettleson. I'm from Wildwood, Missouri. There are infinite variables that affect the taste, color, and texture. That's the competition. That's what we're there for. And other Americans coming because of a fluke. Issa Jan Brown thought she was ordering 50 pounds of rolled oats for cookies at the bakery she runs in San Francisco. But she mistakenly got those steel-cut pinhead oats instead. I basically took 50 pounds of oats home with me. I started, like, trying to figure out ways to utilize it. It probably affected my algorithm on my phone. I started getting these little clips of the golden spirtle, and I sent a message to my family as kind of just joking around, like, look at you guys, I found my people.

8:07She'd found her people, fellow porridge enthusiasts, and is traveling to the other side of the world this fall to meet them, in a place where everyone is focused on making the perfect bowl of porridge. Not too hot, not too salty, just right. Lauren Fryer, NPR News in Carbridge in the Scottish Highlands.

8:30That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening. This message comes from Charles Schwab with their original podcast, Choiceology. Choiceology is a show about the psychology and economics behind people's decisions. Download the latest episode and subscribe at schwab.com slash podcast. This week on the NPR Politics Podcast, Democratic Socialists are having a moment. What's their goal? The goal being to eventually realign the Democratic Party to perhaps someday develop an independent Party, but we recognize that in the United States, there just is a two-party system. How democratic socialists are staking out political territory.

9:11This week on the NPR Politics Podcast. Looking for love? One New York event promises to find you your perfect match using Palantir, though not affiliated with the actual software company. They can sue me. I could lose everything, but it would all be worth it if at least two people here have a spark. So no pressure. The facts, myths and dark jokes surrounding Palantir. Listen to Planet Money on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.