The first tale in the breakfast section in Fairy Tale Feasts is The Magic Pot of Porridge which is a story of a poor girl who lives in poverty with her mother and goes looking for food. The girl stumbles across an old woman who gives her a magic pot that, when told "Cook, little pot, cook," would cook as much porridge as they want, and when told, "Stop, little pot, stop" it would stop. The pot ended the pairs poverty but one day the girl goes out and leaves her mother, who forgets the words to say to stop the pot and so by the time the girl comes home the whole village has been flooded by porridge and people who wanted to get home had to eat their way back.
This tale was recorded by The Brothers Grimm named Sweet Porridge and is German folklore. There were many different types of tales like this one, such as Why the Sea is Salt and The Sorcerer's Apprentice which have similar themes, it was quite a trend in fairy stories.
These tales had the common theme of magic becoming uncontrollable when left in the wrong hands and the idea that the apprentice will abuse the power for personal gain. The Magic Pot of Porridge does not quite present this story idea in the same way however so it slightly alters the moral through its use of food. The mother is not making the porridge with magic simply because she is lazy or greedy like in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the mother simply wants some food for her hunger but has not listened well enough to instructions.
The Magic Pot of Porridge presents the moral of listening carefully or you may end up making a silly mistake that can cost you a great deal. It also explores the ideas of extreme poverty and the lengths people will go to for food. Porridge is well known in Europe as something that was often fed to the poor, being good for you and very filling.
The recipe is a very simple one in the book with just your basic ingredients and method but on the other side offers you a list of variations and extras you can add.
I picked the variation that says to add maple syrup and sugar, as I have a sweet tooth when it comes to porridge.
Here is my version. I even stirred it in the pan with a wooden spoon to be more authentic as Fairy Tale Feasts little information segments said that it was eaten with a wooden spoon because metal became too hot.
More from Fairy Tale Feasts to come soon.
Sammy xx
I found Fairy Tale Feasts online a few weeks ago and knew that I had to order it. It is an anthology of Fairy Tale retellings by Jane Yolen taken from many different cultures and countries and with each tale comes a range of recipes by cook, Heidi E. Y. Stemple inspired and developed to accompany each tale.
“From the earliest days of stories, when hunters came home from the hunt to tell of their exploits around the campfire while gnawing on a leg of beast, to the era of kings in castles listening to the storyteller at the royal dinner feast, to the time of TV dinners when whole families gathered to eat and watch movies together, stories and eating have been close companions.” (p.8)
The set up of this book is something I found particularly interesting to look at. It works like your typical cookbook with sections for each type of meal. There is breakfast, lunch, soup, dinner and dessert sections in the book. Each section starts with the story and on the sides the writer adds little notes and information about the tales and their origins. After the tale we get the recipe set out in your typical format of ingredients followed by directions. This book also includes a few variations of the recipe for the reader to play with and facts on the sides about the ingredients or particular dish.
“There is something more-and this is about the powerful ties between stories and recipes. Both are changeable, suiting the need of the maker and the consumer.” (p.8)
What I like about this book is that it recognises the connection between food and stories, pointing out that the stories that are usually told orally are also often accompanied by good food. Even my own family do this, at dinner we will often sit together and tell the stories of our day or things we have heard or read, each thing we speak about is a story in its own right.
This book is great for children and their parents to go through together. Majority of the stories have morals that are brought about by the use of food and the books set up means that every reader will experience it differently, whether they read the recipe first or the information on the tales origins.
Over the rest of this week I am going to look directly at a few of the tales in the book and how they use food in their plot and then give some of the accompanying recipes a try.
See you soon.
Sammy xx
