Sweet Porridge

Good day Folks!

Today we are observing food lore.

“Sweet Porridge,” is an east German Fairy Tale collected and written by the Grimm brothers 1819. It is also known as The Magic Porridge Pot #103 in Grimm’s Fairy Tales of the 19th century.

Porridge is usually made out of Oats or Oatmeal, however you can use different types of grain for your own preference. I use only Organic ingredients. I like to ground up 2 tbsp of Flax and 1 tsp of Chia seeds for added Omega 3’s and Calcium. Add some berries or chopped apple with walnuts plus milk or Almond milk. One can also add brown sugar to sweeten it. I use a tsp of Organic Maple syrup. Yummy!

Origins of Porridge:

Porridge was known as a fundamental food in Europe and Africa and other parts of the world. Anthropologists acknowledge that Porridge has been around since the Neolithic era.

Oats were introduced to Scotland in about 600 C.E. although crumbs of Barley porridge have been discovered in old pots in the Outer Hebrides dating back 2,500 years earlier. Porridge became famous through the Scots from Scotland as they achieved great success by cultivating oats in the highland soils.

According Medical researchers at the American Heart Association Porridge is a heart healthy food. It can help a person lose or maintain their weight. I enjoy eating it during the winter months. My dad would tell us with his clever grin “it will stick to your ribs,” while he scooped out large amounts of porridge from his giant pot. (Well it appeared gigantic to me when I was a wee child. 😉

Sweet Porridge A Grimm’s Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there was a poor but good little girl who lived alone with her mother, and they no longer had anything to eat. So the child went into the forest, and there an aged woman met her who was aware of her sorrow , and presented her with a little pot, which when she said, “Cook, little pot, cook,” would cook good, sweet porridge, and when she said, “Stop, little pot,” it ceased to cook. The girl took the pot home to her mother, and now they were freed from their poverty and hunger, and ate sweet porridge as often as they chose. One day when the girl had gone out, her mother said, “Cook little pot, cook.” And it did cook and she ate until she was satisfied, and then she wanted the pot to stop cooking, but did not know the word. So it went on cooking and the porridge rose over the edge, and still it cooked on until the kitchen and whole house were full, and then the next house, and the whole street, just as if it wanted to satisfy the hunger of the whole world, and there was the greatest distress, but no one knew how to stop it.

At last when only one single house remained, the child came home and just said: “Stop, little pot,” and it stopped and gave up cooking, and whosoever wished to return to the town had to eat their way back.

The End.

Old children’s Porridge Rhyme

Happiness & Good Health to All!

Source & Reference:

*Featured art by Porridge by William Hemsley (1893) in Public Domain

* illustration of Sweet Porridge German 1985 stamp Wikimedia Commons public domain.

*Grimms’ Children’s and Household Tales, German to English translation by Margaret Hunt.

*American Heart Association Online Oatmeal https://recipes.heart.org/en/recipes/overnight-no-cook-banana-oatmeal