Porridge - what's the difference?

The Minstrel

Just wondering if anyone can tell me what the difference is between the cheapo own brand porridges oats and the way-more-expensive branded porridge oats? Is there any reason why I should cough up the extra...?

sakani

Personally I think they taste the same. Only difference is the price and the packaging. Its all in the cooking :-) Slowly and made with half milk, half water.

rubadub

I am always comparing values on brands, a year or so ago tesco value oats had far less fibre than the others -I guessed they were more processed and maybe the leftover oats from wholegrains stripped of bran to be used as fibre supplements. I also believe this is what tinned mushy peas are, as they have far lower values of fibre than regular peas and you can buy pea fibre supplements so it would make sense to sell on the "waste".

But now the cheap oats (in tesco anyway) do have about the same overall values as odlums etc.

Scotts are meant to be good, I remember reading this (slightly OTT!) post a while ago

filmifan wrote: »

About four months ago, they were having an amazing sale of boxes of Scott's Porage Oats, for 50 cents a bag. That's not a typo, I swear. And it was a proper sized box, too. We only bought two boxes, because we'd never heard of Scott's Porage before (I even thought the word 'porage' was spelled wrong - I've never seen it spelled any other way besides 'porridge'), and we had no idea if we'd like it...not that there's much difference in how one porridge tastes from another...or so we thought!

I have always loved porridge. Always. Since I was a kid. I've mostly liked Flahavan's over any other brand (I think theirs tastes less processed than Odlum's or Quaker Oats). But never in all my porridge-loving years have I tasted anything (in the way of porridge, I mean) as amazing, as delicious, as Scott's Porage. Silky smooth tasting...like velvet on a spoon. It was so delicious that - I kid you not - this winter, with all the horrible cold weather and never-ending snow, all I wanted to eat each morning, as well as each lunchtime, and also as a sweet after dinner (no...I didn't have it for dinner:), but it wouldn't have been rejected, if that's all that was on offer).

So yes...there definitely is a huge difference between Scott's Porage and any other porridge I have ever eaten. To go back to Flahavan's now is kind of a letdown. I've even tried the organic stuff in the health food shops, as well as Odlum's that promises to be smooth and creamy tasting. But, as Sinead once sang in that Prince song, 'nothing compares to....Scott's Porage.' For those of you who've never had it, you won't believe anything I've written here until and unless you've tried it yourself. Even you die-hard, super loyal Flahavan's traditionalists out there (I was one of those, myself, not too long ago).

The tragedy of this whole thing is that those boxes of Scott's Porage they got in at Eurospar that week were just a one-off. A guy came around with lots of discontinued stuff or over-orders of stuff from supermarkets up in Northern Ireland (possibly ASDA in Enniskillen, maybe?) and these precious few boxes of Scott's Porage were amongst the stuff he had on offer to whichever supermarket wanted to take them. In our town's case here, Eurospar won out over SuperValu. Which isn't to say that maybe somewhere else in Ireland, some SuperValu branch might have Scott's.

Since then, cold mornings just haven't been the same. When I long for porridge, I know that it's going to have to be either Odlum's or Flahavan's or, perish the thought, Lidl's brand of something that they try to pass off as porridge (but it isn't, believe me). None of them come even remotely close to Scott's Porage. If I could find some supermarket somewhere in Ireland (preferably west of the Shannon, where I am) I'd buy about 20 boxes of the stuff, just to have and to keep for as long as possible. I doubt I'd ever be lucky enough to get them for 50 cents a box, but I'd be happy enough even if they were a euro or two per box. That's how much I miss my beloved Scott's Porage.

Has anyone found it anywhere and want to share? Go on...don't horde it all for yourselves. Share the love...and share the gorgeous porridge...I mean, porage (it still looks weird to me being spelled that way, but I don't mind one little bit, if it tastes as gorgeous as it did three months ago).

the beer revolu

I like jumbo porridge oats they have a bit of a bite.