Porridge

Porridge is a food made by heating or boiling ground, crushed or chopped starchy plants, typically grain, in milk or water. It is often cooked or served with added flavourings such as sugar, honey, (dried) fruit or syrup to make a sweet cereal, or it can be mixed with spices, meat or vegetables to make a savoury dish. It is usually served hot in a bowl, depending on its consistency. Oat porridge, or oatmeal, is one of the most common types of porridge. Gruel is a thinner version of porridge.

Type of grains

The term "porridge" is often used specifically for oat porridge (oatmeal), which is typically eaten for breakfast with salt, sugar, fruit, milk, cream or butter and sometimes other flavourings. Oat porridge is also sold in ready-made or partly cooked form as an instant breakfast.

Other grains used for porridge include rice, wheat, barley, corn, triticale and buckwheat. Many types of porridge have their own names, such as congee, polenta, grits and kasha.

Conventional uses

Porridge is eaten for any meal of the day and porridge is also eaten in many cultures as a common snack and is often eaten by athletes.

Nutrition

Unenriched porridge (as oatmeal), cooked by boiling or microwave, is 84% water, and contains 12% carbohydrates, including 2% dietary fiber and 2% each of protein and fat (table). In a 100 gram reference amount, cooked porridge provides 71 Calories and contains 29% of the Daily Value (DV) for manganese and moderate content of phosphorus and zinc (11% DV each), with no other micronutrients in significant content (table).

Health effect

A 2014 review found that daily intake of at least 3 grams of oat beta-glucan lowers total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels by 5–10% in people with normal or elevated blood cholesterol levels. Beta-glucan lowers cholesterol by inhibiting cholesterol production, although cholesterol reduction is greater in people with higher total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol in their blood. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration issued a final ruling in 2015 stating that food companies can make health claims on food labels for products containing soluble fiber from whole oats (oat bran, oat flour and rolled oats), noting that 3.0 grams of soluble fiber daily from these foods may reduce the risk of heart disease. To qualify for the health claim, the food that contains the oats must provide at least 0.75 grams of soluble fiber per serving.

Varieties

Maize

* Maize porridge:
**Atole, a Mexican dish of corn flour in water or milk.
** Champurrado (a chocolate-based atole), a Mexican blend of sugar, milk, chocolate and corn dough or corn flour. The Philippine dish tsampurado is similar, with rice instead of maize.
** ''Cir'', ''păsat'' or (when firmer) '' mămăligă'' are all Romanian maize porridges.
** ''Colada'', a hot dish prepared with corn starch, milk, sugar and cinnamon in Colombia and Ecuador.
** Cornmeal mush, a traditional dish in southern and mid-Atlantic US states.
** Cornmeal porridge (parrige), a traditional dish served for breakfast throughout the Caribbean and among Rastafarians. A blend of fine semolina with milk or water and often with all spice and sugar.
** Farina or ''papilla'', a traditional Dominican dish of porridge maize or grass peas.
** Gachas, a Spanish porridge of maize or grass peas. Often garnished with roasted almonds and croutons of bread fried in olive oil.
** Gofio, a Canary Islands porridge of toasted coarse-ground maize. Made from roasted sweetcorn and other grains (e.g., wheat, barley or oats), used in many ways in parts of the world from which Canary Islanders have emigrated.
** Grits, ground hominy, is common in the southern United States, traditionally served with butter, salt and black pepper. Sometimes, it is also served with cheese.
** Kačamak, a maize porridge from the Balkans.
** Kānga pirau, a fermented corn porridge dish that is made and consumed by the Māori people of New Zealand
** Mazamorra, a maize porridge from Colombia's Paisa region made with whole maize grains that can be sweet or salty.
** Polenta, an Italian maize porridge which is cooked to a solidified state and sliced for serving.
** Rubaboo is made from dried maize and peas with animal fat and was a staple food of the Voyageurs.
** Shuco, a Salvadoran dish of black, blue or purple corn flour, ground pumpkin seeds, chili sauce and red cooked kidney beans, which was traditionally drunk out of a hollowed-out gourd at early morning, especially coming from a hunting or drinking trip.
** ''Suppawn,'' also called, and better known as, hasty pudding, was common in American colonial times and consisted of cornmeal boiled with milk into a thick porridge. Still eaten in modern times, it is no longer necessarily corn-based.
** ''Uji'', a thick East African porridge made most commonly from corn flour mixed with sorghum and many other different ground cereals, with milk or butter and sugar or salt. Ugali, a more solid meal, is also made from maize flour, likewise often mixed with other cereals. These two, under various names, are staple foods over a wide part of the African continent, e.g., pap in South Africa, sadza in Zimbabwe, nshima in Zambia, tuwo or ogi in Nigeria, etc., though some of these may also be made from sorghum.
** ''Žganci'', a maize porridge prepared in the Kajkavian countries and Slovenia.
** '' Mielie pap'' is a maize porridge staple in South African cuisine.

Millet

* Millet porridge:
** Foxtail millet porridge is a staple food in northern China.
** A porridge made from pearl millet is the staple food in Niger and surrounding regions of the Sahel.
** Oshifima or otjifima, a stiff pearl millet porridge, is the staple food of northern Namibia.
** Middle Eastern millet porridge, often seasoned with cumin

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