Spurtle - Scottish oatmeal stick
Ranked #9,179 in Food & Cooking, #165,185 overall
Cook porridge the Scottish way with a spurtle
The spurtle is a traditional cooking tool from Scotland. In its simplest form it is little more than a stick, used for frequent stirring of the oats as they simmered over a peat fire for many long hours. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the word to before 1572.
It just so happens that I make spurtles right here in my workshop in Nova Scotia. Handcrafted from maple to my own contemporary design, these make a great addition to any kitchen and are a quite unique gift. Each one comes with an information sheet. You can find out more at my website here. But if you just can't wait to order your spurtle, you can click here to add one to your shopping cart right now. They cost $12 each, plus $8.00 shipping. That's Canadian Dollars of course.
It just so happens that I make spurtles right here in my workshop in Nova Scotia. Handcrafted from maple to my own contemporary design, these make a great addition to any kitchen and are a quite unique gift. Each one comes with an information sheet. You can find out more at my website here. But if you just can't wait to order your spurtle, you can click here to add one to your shopping cart right now. They cost $12 each, plus $8.00 shipping. That's Canadian Dollars of course.
The Golden Spurtle, 2008
The 15th Annual World Porridge Making Championship in Carrbridge
curated content from YouTube
Spurtle tradition
The proper way to stir
Porridge should always be stirred clockwise with the right hand.
Stirring widdershins (anti-clockwise) is said to invoke the devil or bring bad luck.
Stirring widdershins (anti-clockwise) is said to invoke the devil or bring bad luck.
Alton Brown makes oatmeal
A look at oats and how to cook them
A great episode of the Good Eats show titled Oat Cuisine in which Alton talks about oats, explains the difference between whole oats, steel cut oats, oatmeal and instant oatmeal. He goes on to make some porridge. You can watch part two here.
curated content from YouTube
Steel cut oats
Really the best thing to make porridge from
Steel-cut oats are whole oat kernels which have been cut into only two or three pieces. They are golden in colour and resemble small rice pieces. You may also find them labelled as coarse-cut oats, pinhead oats, Scotch oats, or Irish oats. They take longer to cook than rolled oats - but the distinctive texture makes it all worthwhile.
McCann's have been making oatmeal in Ireland since 1800. They use only non-GMO oats, grown in counties Kildare and Meath. The temperature and humid climate of Ireland promotes the slow ripening of the grain. It enables the oats to draw the goodness from the soil and yield up a crop with fuller, plumper grains.
McCann's have been making oatmeal in Ireland since 1800. They use only non-GMO oats, grown in counties Kildare and Meath. The temperature and humid climate of Ireland promotes the slow ripening of the grain. It enables the oats to draw the goodness from the soil and yield up a crop with fuller, plumper grains.
Cooking steel cut oats
A few secret ingredients thrown in for good luck
McCanns website has recipes for all manner of cooking their steel cut oats, such as in the microwave or pressure cooker, but here is a more traditional approach, albeit with a few additional ingredients.
curated content from YouTube
More oatmeal recipe ideas
Some more pages for spurtle lovers to check out
Your favourite porridge recipe
Plain, or with fruit, whisky and other delights?
Take a moment and tell us what you like best with your oatmeal porridge. Do you prefer rolled or steel-cut oats? Do you have a special way to cook it? Do tell...
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Susanne_Iles
Sep 15, 2011 @ 10:24 am | delete
- I love oatmeal mixed with raisins, chopped apple,nuts and honey. I've have really started enjoying making and eating flummery...oatmeal with a fermented twist. I loved your lens and added it to my featured lens widget on my How to Make Flummery page. Great work, and your spurtles are lovely :)
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seafoam
Sep 15, 2011 @ 11:54 am | delete
- Thank you Suzanne. The flummery sounds interesting and I have added your page to my list of oatmeal recipes. I wonder if you can add anything to it before it sets to enhance the flavor?
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seafoam
Sep 15, 2011 @ 11:55 am | delete
- By the way, for those that like honey on their porridge, I recently started making honey dippers.
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Oatmeal in a coffee percolator?
Weird. Definitely not traditional!
Alton Brown's fan website has a whole page devoted to oatmeal. They even have a picture of one of my spurtles.
curated content from YouTube
Did I tell you that I make spurtles?
I did? Just for your shopping convenience here are the links again:
You can find out more at my website here.But if you just can't wait to order your spurtle, you can click here to add one to your shopping cart right now.
They cost $12 each, plus $8.00 shipping. That's Canadian Dollars of course. Don't forget, these spurtles are handcrafted by myself here in Nova Scotia. Each spurtle comes with an information sheet, so if you are are giving one as a gift the recipient will know what to do with it.
More about spurtles and porridge
Porridge: the king of superfoods
"Let porridge, that cheap and cheerful stomach filler, solve all manner of problems. Better sex, sharper brains, longevity, lower cholesterol levels, weight loss, help children to concentrate at school..... Sales are soaring, especially among 25 to 34-year-olds. The Quaker Oats factory in Fife had its biggest "sales uplift" in its 110-year history." (14 April 2009)
"Let porridge, that cheap and cheerful stomach filler, solve all manner of problems. Better sex, sharper brains, longevity, lower cholesterol levels, weight loss, help children to concentrate at school..... Sales are soaring, especially among 25 to 34-year-olds. The Quaker Oats factory in Fife had its biggest "sales uplift" in its 110-year history." (14 April 2009)
by seafoam
I live in rural Nova Scotia, Canada where I make my living as a woodturner. If you need a spurtle, I'm your man.
I have an interest in how the internet...
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