The humble Scottish breakfast with rich cultural significance

0:00This message comes from the Center for U.S. Voters Abroad Foundation. All U.S. citizens abroad may request an absentee ballot to vote in the 2026 election. Visit registerabroad.com to get started. Today on State of the World, the humble Scottish breakfast with rich cultural significance. You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon. On today's episode, we're going to the Scottish Highlands. It's a story about porridge. Nope, stay with me. What we in the U.S. might think of as oatmeal has deep roots in Scottish culture. The traditional recipe has only three ingredients, oats, water, and salt. So how distinct can different bowls of porridge be? Oh, you have no idea. NPR's Lauren Freyer takes us to Scotland for our education.

1:03In a woodworking shed behind his house, Bob Shorter is carving a spurdle. A spurdle, traditionally, which is kind of tapered with a rounded end. In which is the end that goes in the pot? This ends. It's a wooden wand used in kitchens across Scotland. To stir your porridge. So Hillary would be better to explain. It's the shape. You can get right into the edge of the pan and you get a really good stir. His wife, Hillary Shorter, cautions about stirring the spurdle clockwise only. Otherwise you'll let the devil into it. Wait, what? You never stir your porridge anticlockwise. Otherwise, you're in trouble. And she shows me the typical Scottish way to cook porridge. You bring it to our fast boil until it says, allopul, allopul, allopul. That's the name of a village in the west coast. And then you take it down to our low heat until it says, pull you, pull you, pull you. And you can hear the sound.

2:03Yeah. And it's like frothy. It's not like a kind of white foamy. It's thickening up now. It smells really dirty. It smells really dirty and nutty, yeah. It will be very hot. Okay. 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. So creamy. The spurdle also lends its name to a quintessential Scottish competition called the Golden Spurdle, aka welcome to the 32nd world porridge making championship. That's a recording of last year's event organized by Alan Rankin, porridge chieftain, best job title I've ever had. Rankin let me tag along on preparations for this year's porridge competition. These are the tasting bowls which attract oatmeal,

3:04aficionados from dozens of countries. It's like a mini-world cup. We have bulgadia, czechnia, Mexico, Slovenia, Spain, Venezuela. What are the guys in Venezuela want to come? Every October they all descend on the village of Carbridge, which actually has two bridges, one pub, no stoplights and about 700 residents. So we have a pipe band and they process up through the village and there's flags and banners and all sorts of things and everybody gathers in front of the village hall and a little drum. We've got a local whisky ambassador that does a toast and then battle commences at 1030, 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 live stream from overflow rooms inside.

4:09One end beyond the tartan ribbon we have six tables. 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. And it's all blind tasting. Gareth Pashky runs the local pub and got pulled in to judge one year when a food critic got ill. I was astounded by the variety of different flavors and textures and colors. I just thought, you know, porridge is quite often made of a taste. Do you go, that's a lovely bowl of porridge. I'd love to have a second spoonful. But I know I've got a 50 left to go. So I'm not gonna.

5:10Now 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. We take it very, very seriously. This is a world champion after all that we're creating. Sarah Rankin, no relation to porridge, Chiefs in Allen 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. 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. The bomb shell at last year's competition. The golden spurso for the 2025 world-potted champion goes to

6:12Sven Selhelm. Was the trophy winner Sven Selhelm from Norway used a rare type of oats brought back from obscurity if not extinction? The Norwegian oat called the 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 oats, appetizing color really. There's a little bit bite to it. So it's sort of crunchy. I think that was the side effect. 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 plain train, then bus or taxi to reach this highlands village for the competition this October. My name is Stuart Willett. Porridge enthusiast originally from Omaha, Nebraska. I have an entire notebook at this point of all of the the test runs and it's surprising how much of a variety you can get with three ingredients.

7:15I'm Josh Kettelsen. I'm from Wildwood, Missouri. There are an infinite variables that affect the taste, color and texture. That's the competition. That's what we're there for. Another Americans coming because of a fluke. Issa Jan 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. 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 sprytle and I sent a message to my family. I was kind of just joking around like look at you guys. I found my people. She 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.

8:18Not too hot, not too salty, just right. Lauren Friar and PR News in Carbridge in the Scottish Highlands. That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening. You count on sunscreen to protect your skin, but that SPF rating on the bottle might not be exactly as advertised. So you can measure an SPF 50 at one lab and an SPF 30 at another. On the Sunday story, is it time to update sunscreen guidance? Listen now to the Sunday story from the Up First podcast on the MPR app. This week on Weight Weight Don't Tell Me, we talk with our panel, Joy Elma Cole Johnson, Peter Gross, and Tick Nattaro about the new trade war with Canada. I can't imagine maple syrup being any more expensive like it costs as much as a car. Like this true? What kind of car are you buying? Don't miss our full conversation and the rest of our games. Listen to the Weight Weight Don't Tell Me podcast in the NPR app,

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