breakfast cereal

[fearfaoin]

I've never seen a US-made steelcut oat in the grocery store.

For some reason, they're often called "pinhead oats" in the US.
You can find 'em in some Whole Foods type stores...

[fearfaoin]

What is the benefit of steel-milled oats versus rolled oats?

Rolled oats are just steel-milled oats that have been steamed
and pressed and dried, which makes them cook faster.

Alton Brown (of Good Eats) did a pretty good show about oats.
You can see the transcript here.

[gonzo914]

I've never seen a US-made steelcut oat in the grocery store.

For some reason, they're often called "pinhead oats" in the US.
You can find 'em in some Whole Foods type stores...

We don't have a Whole Foods in my town. We only recently got a Starbucks.

When I find steel-cut or pinhead oats in the locally owned healthy food co-op, they are either McCann's or a Scottish brand that has a picture of a Scot in a kilt on the front of the box. All imports. I like them because you actually can chew them.

Here's what Quaker has to say about the difference -- Quaker FAQ.

[gonzo914]

Hold the presses -- I just found that Quaker makes a
steel cut oat.



Now I have to find a place that sells the stuff.

[djm]

Thanks, Fearfaoin. Simplistic but effective, i.e. even I understood it. But he says to make a cup of rolled oats. The Quaker can of steel-rolled says a quarter cup per serving. Alton Brown didn't mention it, but that sounds like he made enough for four people. Does this sound right?

With all of Brown's prep and cooking time, this means steel-milled takes close to an hour, versus ten minutes for a bowl of rolled oats, the difference being a preference for flavour and texture of the steel-milled.

Now, if I can just find someone dumb enough to spend an hour each morning to make me a bowl of oatmeal ....

djm

[fearfaoin]

Alton Brown didn't mention it, but that sounds like he made enough for four people. Does this sound right?

Sounds about right. In the show, he has a big ol' Crockpot
half-full of oatmeal, so it would probably feed >= four people.

Now, if I can just find someone dumb enough to spend an hour each morning to make me a bowl of oatmeal ....

Small crockpot + timer + oats = Breakfasty goodness!

[MarkB]

Speaking of Porridge, anybody ever hear from him/her? Sorry for the aside, just wondering.

MarkB

[Black Mage]

I lean towards the more granola types of cereal. I also love steel-cut oats. Pair that with a slice of multi-grain bread topped with peanut butter, banana slices, and a drizzle of honey, then you got a great morning start.

[Martin Milner]

Hot cereal in UK = porridge.

Phew, normality restored.

But what is porridge? What's in it?

I had taken that to mean that porridge is a generic term for hot cereal in the UK.

No, I meant that porridge is the ONLY hot cereal in the UK, this girlie Coco Wheats and such are not to be endured.

[Flyingcursor]

Speaking of Porridge, anybody ever hear from him/her? Sorry for the aside, just wondering.

MarkB

I wondered that myself.

Maybe I'll try steel milled oats to see the difference.

[Innocent Bystander]

I'm the only one in our house who likes porridge. So I have to make it just for me (and the occasional unsuspecting visitor, ha ha!).

I use a chinese teacup as a measure. It holds 400ml.
In a small saucepan I put one chinese cup of rolled oats. I use Jordans, but generic rolled oats are fine. If I've been in Scotland or near a Wholefood shop, then pinhead oatmeal is GREAT! But normally I have none.
To this I add two and one half measures of water - i.e. 1000 ml.
Add a pinch of salt & bring it to the boil. While I'm doing this I feed the toaster. Two or three different kinds of homemade bread, and maybe a pikelet or a pancake. Or a crumpet. By this time the porridge has boiled, so it goes down onto the lowest heat. And the toaster is set (on four - lightly burn). Fill up the glass with orange juice, find the butter and jam, and the toast pops up. Turn off the heat under the porridge. Butter the toast. Add jam to taste. Pour the porridge into a bowl and add milk.
Rovery!
And if it takes longer than five minutes, something has gone seriously wrong.

But when I wor a lad, I sometimes had Weetabix with hot milk. In emergencies (like when we had run out of porridge).

[SteveShaw]

But what is porridge? What's in it?

The stuff I'm referring to is a grain meal type of thing.

When discussing breakfast cereals and porridge comes up, ask not what's in it but ask what's not in it. No wheat for a start. You could be eating wheat cereal for breakfast, a butty for lunch and pasta for tea. Too much wheat there. No added sugar, no spray-on vitamins and no salt. Proprietary cereals contain all these things except for pure wholewheat cereals such as shredded wheat (I'd rather tuck into a portion of coconut matting). Porridge contains oats and whatever liquid you've added. I prefer half skimmed, half water. No salt despite what hard-bitten Scots may tell you. If you use pinhead oatmeal you'll have to remember to soak it for hours first. Easiest thing is just to buy a box of organic oats that you like the taste and texture of. Mornflakes are good and cheap, though the texture is rather fine. For a coarser texture I like Morrisons' organic oats. Whatever, all you have to do is to use twice as much liquid volume as oat volume, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Stir like crazy unless you are partial to burnt pans and odd-tasting porridge. Add a bit of honey or sugar if you like, to taste. Not ideal but very tasty and you won't be getting anywhere near as much sugar as with Sugar Puffs. Oats lower your cholesterol level (if you worry about such things) and enough fibre to keep your bowels going like a well-oiled machine.

[burnsbyrne]

For my money there's nothing like Coco Puffs. All the chocolate and none of that healthy stuff. When I want a healthy breakfast I go for shreaded wheat, mostly the ones with the coating of sugar on the top. When I was small, back in the 50's, my mother would never buy any sugary cereal like Corn Puffs or Frosted Flakes. We had Cheerios or Corn Flakes. So we added our own sugar - so much that when the cereal was done there was plenty of sugar to scrape off the bottom of the bowl. That may be part of the reason I have so many fillings in my teeth. That and the fact that I missed flouridation of the water by a few years.

I found Flanahan's microwaveable oat porridge in a local Irish import store. I believe it tastes better than your standard Quaker rolled oats but I'm not a conoiseur.
Mike

[Jack]

Warning/disclaimer: oatmeal made by the Quaker oat company has no present or historic connection to the Religious Society of Friends (commonly called Quakers).

That said, I remember reading somewhere years ago that oats and rice were the most widely-available foods in the world.

[The Weekenders]

Never had the pleasure of 30-minute oats... and here I thought "Old-Fashioned" was closer to less processed. Well, it sorta is...

The Weekender makes the oatmeal stovetop, adds blueberries (raisins if outta bb), chopped walnuts, a bit o' salt, then once cooked, douses it with real maple syrup and half-n-half. Would use cream if we kept it around....

What really complements it and wrecks the overall health is a slice or two of apple-smoked bacon...

Cuppa jo and away we go.