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Cooking and eating porridge for supper on an Orkney croft; s...

Date 25 June 1969
Track ID 64264
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1969.53

Original Tape ID

SA1969.053

Summary

Cooking and eating porridge for supper on an Orkney croft; syrup and weak beer as flavourings.

Ethel Findlater's family ate lots of porridge, but not for breakfast as her mother had no time to cook it. Her father was unable to work because of rheumatism so her mother had to feed the hens, milk the cows and do the rest of the work.

Porridge was made at supper time in a three-toed pot. It was boiled for fifteen minutes then set on the stone floor in front of the hearth. Everyone had a bowl of milk and a spoon and helped themselves from the porridge pot. Porridge was salted to taste but not eaten with sugar. If the cow was yeld [not giving milk], then the porridge was eaten with syrup in a plate rather than a bowl. The children made a hole in the top of the porridge and filled it with syrup, eating it from the outside in. Some people used to eat porridge with weak beer from the third brewing. Alan Bruford adds that this thin beer was called 'plink'.

Item Location

County - Orkney

Parish - Sandwick

Island - Orkney Mainland

Village/Place - Dounby, Breckan

Language

English, Scots

Genre

Information

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good