THE AMATEUR WORD NERD: Have a spurtle of some real drammack

By Barbara McAlister

Word of the Day: Drammack

Also spelled “drammock” or “drammach,” it’s a mixture of meal, usually oats, and cold water. Like the delightfully named rumbledethump, clapshot and clootie dumplings, it’s a dish from Scotland. Think of drammack as similar to the more familiar porridge.
Traditional Scottish oatmeal porridge is cooked in a big pot for 20 to 30 minutes and stirred with a wooden spoon called a spurtle. It was customarily served in wooden bowls and eaten standing up. Cream is served in a separate bowl to dip each spoonful individually. In the old days, leftovers were poured into another container to cool and then cut into blocks to be wrapped to-go for the working-man’s lunch or dinner. The Scots take their porridge seriously, and the annual World Porridge Making Championship is held in the Scottish Highlands every October. Contestants from all over the world compete for the title awarded for the best porridge using only oatmeal, water and salt. If you’re passionate about porridge you can find out more at www.goldenspurtle.com.
In America we like convenience. You may be acquainted with the popular trend of overnight oats in which you just add milk or water to dry oats, leave in the refrigerator overnight and enjoy a cup of oatmeal in the morning, ready to be eaten hot or cold. The commercially produced Overnight Oat products add sweeteners and other grains but you can easily make your own version by using roughly twice as much liquid as grain and whatever ingredients you like. It’s hardly a new idea. The Scots have been softening oats by soaking, rather than cooking them, since the 1500’s. It is known in the original Scottish Gaelic as dramag, literally “foul mixture,” which explains why Quaker went with “Overnight Oats” to market its product.