SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This summer, we've been hearing about breakfast from all over the world. Know what they got in Scotland? Porridge. The traditional recipe has just three ingredients - oats, water and salt. So how distinct can bowls of porridge possibly be? It's a tough assignment, but we knew NPR's Lauren Frayer was was up to it. And she went to the Scottish Highlands for some answers.
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LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: In a woodworking shed behind his house, Bob Shorter is carving a spurtle.
BOB SHORTER: A spurtle, traditionally, it's kind of tapered with a rounded end.
FRAYER: And which is the end that goes in the pot?
B SHORTER: This end.
FRAYER: OK.
B SHORTER: So you hold it here.
FRAYER: It's a wooden wand used in kitchens across Scotland.
B SHORTER: To stir your porridge. So Hilary would be better to explain.
HILARY SHORTER: It's the shape. You can get right into the edge of the pan, and you get a really good stir.
FRAYER: His wife, Hilary Shorter, cautions about stirring the spurtle clockwise only.
H SHORTER: Otherwise, you'll let the devil into it.
FRAYER: Wait. What was that?
H SHORTER: You never stir your porridge anticlockwise. Otherwise, you're in trouble.
FRAYER: And she shows me the typical Scottish way to cook porridge.
H SHORTER: You bring it to a fast boil until it says Ullapool, Ullapool, Ullapool (ph). That's the name of a village on the west coast. And then you take it down to a low heat till it says, pull you, pull you, pull you. And you can hear the sound.
FRAYER: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF PORRIDGE BOILING)
FRAYER: And it's, like, frothy. It's got, like, a kind of...
H SHORTER: Yes.
FRAYER: ...White foamy...
H SHORTER: It's thickening up now.
FRAYER: It smells...
H SHORTER: I'm turning it down.
FRAYER: ...Really nutty. It smells really starchy and nutty, yeah.
Oh, thank you.
H SHORTER: It will be very hot.
FRAYER: OK. 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.
H SHORTER: No milk. No.
FRAYER: It's so creamy.
The spurtle also lends its name to a quintessential Scottish competition called the Golden Spurtle aka...
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ALAN RANKIN: Welcome to the 32nd World Porridge Making Championship.
(CHEERING)
FRAYER: That's a recording of last year's event, organized by...
A RANKIN: Alan Rankin, porridge chieftain. Best job title I've ever had (laughter).
FRAYER: Rankin let me tag along on preparations for this year's porridge competition.
A RANKIN: These are the tasting bowls, as we call them.
FRAYER: Which attract oatmeal aficionados from dozens of countries.
A RANKIN: It's like a mini World Cup. We have Bulgaria, Chechnya, Mexico, Slovenia, Spain, Venezuela. We had a guy from Venezuela who wanted to come.
FRAYER: Every October, they all descend on the village of Carrbridge, which actually has two bridges, one pub, no stop lights and about 700 residents.
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A RANKIN: So we have a pipe band.
(SOUNDBITE OF BAGPIPES)
A RANKIN: And they process up through the village, and there's flags and banners and all sorts of things.
FRAYER: Wow.
A RANKIN: And everybody gathers in front of the village hall, and we have a little dram.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: We are now going to drink a toast to the porridge.
(CHEERING)
A RANKIN: We've got a local whisky ambassador that does a toast, and then battle commences at 10:30. Game on.
FRAYER: 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 livestream from overflow rooms. Inside...
A RANKIN: One end, beyond the tartan ribbon, we have six tables.
FRAYER: With double-burner stations where 30 contestants cook porridge in heats. Only six progress to the finals. The 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.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Yes. And they have to show it into the hall (ph).
FRAYER: OK.
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.
GARETH PASCHKE: I was astounded by the variety of different flavors and textures and colors. I just thought, you know, porridge is porridge. Quite often, we would have a taste and 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 going to.
FRAYER: He loves porridge but says even he didn't eat it afterward for at least a few days. Judges score each bowl on flavor, including how salty or starchy, along with texture, consistency and something called mouthfeel.
SARAH RANKIN: We take it very, very seriously. This is a world champion, after all, that we're creating.
FRAYER: 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.
S RANKIN: It'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.
FRAYER: The bombshell at last year's competition.
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S RANKIN: The Golden Spurtle for the 2025 World Porridge Champion goes to Sven Seljom.
(CHEERING)
FRAYER: Was the trophy winner Sven Seljom from Norway used a rare type of oats brought back from obscurity, if not extinction.
SVEN SELJOM: A Norwegian oat called a 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. They are darker than the normal oat - 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.
FRAYER: 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.
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STUART WILLETT: 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.
JOSH KETTLESON: I'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.
FRAYER: Another American's coming because of a fluke. Esa Yonn-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.
ESA YONN-BROWN: 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 Spurtle, and I sent a message to my family as kind of just joking around, like, look it, you guys, I found my people.
FRAYER: She'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 Frayer, NPR News in Carrbridge on the Scottish Highlands.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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