Cooking and eating porridge for supper on an Orkney croft; s...
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1969.53
Original Tape ID
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 - Birsay
Island - Orkney Mainland
Village/Place - Breckan
Language
English, Scots
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good