John’s gone Galt for the evening and I’m feeling too down for politics, for various reasons I won’t go into. Okay, I will. I couldn’t sleep last night after the Colts-Patriots game.
So this is going to be a sad attempt at John-type post. I’ve been making steel-cut oatmeal in my slow-cooker and, while it’s delicious, it’s kind of a pain. Even with a four-to-one water-to-oats ratio, it runs out of water and starts sticking to the sides. Should I use cooking spray? Just add a ton more water? Keep it on “warm” the whole time instead of having it “cook” at all?
Any particular recipes people like for this? I like the idea of adding dried fruit.
Left Coast Tom
I suggest patching your driveway with the oatmeal and going out for an omelette.
arguingwithsignposts
I think you’re not applying Socrates Third Law of Slow Cooking, which involves something with a Brick Oven … fuck it. I’m all out of snark. Just had to say frist!
JGabriel
DougJ:
That sounds kind of kinky.
.
arguingwithsignposts
@Left Coast Tom: Dammit LCT beat me.
schrodinger's cat
DougJ,
Do you have a cat? Are his dimensions > or < that of Tunch?
Sorry I have no experience with oats. But my cats love oat grass.
General Winfield Stuck
I just use quick oats. What I eat every morning with half a can of crushed pineapple mixing in with some sweetener. Absolutely delicious and if the oats are too gooey the P juice helps counter it. Just use lots of water from the get go. Better to have it a little watery than molasses like. imo
AngusTheGodOfMeat
For God’s sake, go to McDonalds and get an Angus burger.
schrodinger's cat
BTW why are you having breakfast for dinner?
Skepticat
More water. Dried fruit is great.
tim
what the hell is “steel cut” oatmeal?
kid bitzer
steel cut oats are awesome. but i don’t get why they’re sticking to your slow-cooker.
maybe the surface of your slow-cooker is worn out? maybe you need to scrub off a little of whatever got baked on before?
i use a rice cooker myself. works like a charm, and tells me when it’s done.
fruit good, yes. but don’t forget cinnamon, vanilla, maple syrup.
and ignore the haters. oats will keep you healthy and full of pep longer after those omelet-eaters are in their graves.
R-Jud
I’m not doing heavy carbs at the moment, but a bit of real maple syrup and dried cranberries makes oatmeal much nicer. Plus a tablespoon of nut butter– peanut or almond, your choice.
JenJen
How long in the slow cooker are we talkin’? More water, I say, without having all the facts in front of me.
Hell, DougJ. Do it Erick Erickson-style. Just go all Oatmeal:Water in.
Violet
Have you tried the slow cooker liners?
I cook my oatmeal in the microwave. I go over 2:1 ratio in water:oatmeal and it seems to work reasonably well. It’s not steel-cut though.
Left Coast Tom
@kid bitzer:
I do like a good oatmeal stout. Though not for breakfast.
ellaesther
Ah, oatmeal. I love oatmeal! I eat it every morning when it’s
coldanything less than warm out, and I have been known to order it at restaurants. This one place in Chicago (Orange) does a pan-seared version — now them’s good eats!But I just make McCann’s Quick Cooking Oats in the microwave. I make it with milk, it takes 3 1/2 minutes, I add more milk, add raisins and brown sugar — perfecto!
Linkmeister
@schrodinger’s cat:
Hey! We’re having Portuguese sausage (linguica) and eggs and hash browns out here tonight!
R-Jud
@ellaesther:
My father is a bit… picky. He only eats oatmeal when it’s below freezing. Like checks the thermometer and everything.
Liberty60
@tim:
Exactly…I love oatmeal, but have never heard of this- can someone clue me in?
PurpleGirl
I like to add pecans, raisins and cinnamon to oatmeal. You probably should add a bit more water when you start cooking it.
SpotWeld
From Digby
If God didn’t intend for us to smoke up, why did he make Marijuana out of pot
calling all toasters
Slow cookers are double plus suck.
R-Jud
@Liberty60:
It’s the un-rolled nugget (“groat”) of grain from the oat, that has been cut into little pieces with blades. Usually oatmeal is sold rolled flat into flakes, which makes it quicker to cook.
sarah in brooklyn
there is a simple method for making perfect steel cut oats. the night before you want them boil 2 cups of water in a saucepan. add 1/2 cups of oats, return to a boil. Turn off the heat and go to bed. In the morning your oats will be pefect, just warm them up and enjoy. I swear, this works!
schrodinger's cat
Oatmeal preferred by DFHs
schrodinger's cat
@Linkmeister:
That sounds delicious!
Linkmeister
wisegeek.com/what-are-steel-cut-oats.htm
sarah in brooklyn
oh, and in the morning when you warm it up, add whatever. Fruit, spices. I like peanut butter and a little maple syrup.
yam
Use a thermos and add 4-1 boiling water to steel cut oats and let it sit overnight. In the morning, you’ll have oatmeal without the mess. I do this bike camping.
Linkmeister
@schrodinger’s cat: There was a fairly large contingent of Portuguese who immigrated to Hawai’i in the 19th century, bringing along their sausage and their malasadas (deep-fried bread coated in sugar).
Kirk Spencer
4:1 is ‘normal’, but it is thick. (I like it thick, ymmv). Try 5:1 to see if you like it that consistency better.
cooking spray won’t help – sorry, but it’ll just migrate into the porridge.
Something that some use and like is to leave the cooker off – just pour boiling water over the oats that are in a cooking pot and let them sit overnight. In the morning, ten minutes over the stove brings them up to eating temperature. If you do this, please put the pot in the refrigerator.
If you run the slow-cooker overnight you need to decide what consistency you want your fruit. Added the night before, they’re going to be flavoring, not texture. Added at the last minute you get actual fruit bites. Oh – use dried when possible.
As for alternates – I’m an oddball; I like haggis, for which steel cut oats are great. Groats are a second choice imo. Assuming you’re not such an oddball, granola made with steel cut oats is quite good – just use your favorite recipe and make the appropriate substitute. Be advised you’ll want to add a bit more moisture in the process.
I’ve read of several who use them for oatmeal cookies. The general advice is to soak them 1:1 in liquid (water/milk mixture) for half an hour to an hour, then use 1 for 1 substitution for rolled oats. There are variations on this – again, I’ve not done them myself so can’t vouch for how well it’ll work.
Cain
Ugh. Why water? It doesn’t sound like it tastes any good. i always prefer to have my oats with milk. Putting water makes it taste like prison food.
cain
mai naem
I have done the rice cooker thing and pressure cooker. Pressure cooker works well. Nuts in the oatmeal tastes good too. Chopped walnuts/pecans/almonds. My mom alway has used milk to cook it as do I. Water’s an american thing.
Also too, the bits and pieces I have seen of the Sarah Palin makes her sound sooo much like a liar. She talks fast like a teenager who’s been caught lying. I don’t know if it’s the mike but her voice sounds a lot louder than Oprah’s. And she ain’t aging well.
schrodinger's cat
@Linkmeister:
Do you live in Hawaii? I has a jealous, I iz in cold cold New England.
beltane
A chef once suggested pre-soaking the oats for several hours before cooking, which seems a major pain in the ass for breakfast cereal. When I used to make steel-cut oats, I’d just keep them on a bare simmer until they were done and they turned out great. Once I had kids I stopped making steel-cut oats at all. They should just be grateful they’re not getting the instant stuff.
goblue72
@sarah in brooklyn:
Ditto – I’ve tried this method and it works just fine. If you are more in a hurry, you still don’t need a slow cooker. Just bring the 4 cups water to a boil, then dump in the 1 cup of oats (boil first, then add oats – this helps prevent them from getty too gelatinous). Let ’em roll in the boil for about 5 minutes or less, just enough to get ’em starting to thicken a little. Turn down the heat to a low simmer. Within 20 minutes they should be done.
kormgar
I do my steel cut oatmeal in a fuzzy logic rice cooker, set it to rice porridge mode…super easy and it works like a charm. Set it up the night before, set the timer, and I wake up to perfect oatmeal in the morning.
I like to add a half stick of cinnamon and a touch of vanilla before it soaks.
Xenos
@schrodinger’s cat: as for DFHs – it is more green because rolled oats are processed so much, requiring lots of carbon. Quick oats, which are fully cooked and then dehydrated, have an especially high carbon footprint, as compared to the steel cut oats.
But then, the steel blades used to cut the oats themselves have a carbon footprint, and if they are replaced often enough in the processing system, then…
Forget it. Eat what you like.
Linkmeister
@schrodinger’s cat: Yep. Family since 1970, me since 1978.
Lived in New London on the Groton River across from the Sub Base back when I was 6 to 8, though.
schrodinger's cat
These elitist steel cut oats sure seem like a lot of work, slow cooker, rice cooker, soaking them overnight. Sounds like more work than the Thanksgiving turkey.
glasgowtremontaine
4:1 ratio works great, with no stickiness, in a pyrex bowl in the microwave. Mine is ancient: only one setting, only 15 minutes at a time, so I just keep resetting the dial till it’s done, depending on how huge a batch I’m making that week.
Morbo
Goddammit, I’m going to have to watch this game on mute. Jaws is doing his best Tony Kornheiser impersonation with Brady fucking Quinn on the field. Oh great, and now Gruden’s joining in. Better sports pundits, please!
AhabTRuler
@Linkmeister: Hmm, I am detecting a pattern…
theunmarrieddaughter
Waterbath it.
No, seriously, get a heat safe bowl(If you have a smaller crockpot insert, put the oatmeal stuff in it and then put it in your crockpot. If not, make something work from your pots and pan collection. Worse case, triple layer some aluminum foil over a pot, shaping it so that you will can fit the uncooked oatmeal gunk in it, yet still have room on the outside to pour water around it. Triple layer it because you want the aluminum foil insert to be as stable as possible to hold the oatmeal in and not seep into your water in your waterbath.
Then, boil up a tea kettle of water, put your smaller insert in the bigger crockpot’s insert, fill the big crockpot up with water, it should come two-thirds up the smaller insert. Now, if you were able to get a pot to fit in your crockpot and got the lid to go on it, great. If not, just snugly fit aluminum foil over the top.
Turn the crockpot on low, and go to bed. Wake up to warm christmas smell and no burnt crispy bits of oatmeal stuck to your bigger pot.
There’s internet instructions somewhere, I can see if I can hunt them down.
jeffreyw
I’ve been making steel cut oatmeal for Mrs J for a good while and I find that cooking it in the microwave is the best way. Cook uncovered at about 40% power for about 40-45 minutes. 4-1 water to oatmeal is fine, your machine’s power may vary, so check it a few times during cooking.
Dried fruit is a great addition, add it before cooking with a tad extra water.
General Winfield Stuck
You need a sword. And a little time to practice.
Funkhauser
Tomorrow for breakfast I’ll have some papaya, mango and fresh-squeezed pineapple juice. Hooray for Brazil!
Seriously, thanks all for the milk-instead-of-water advice. I’ll try that soon.
Linkmeister
@AhabTRuler: What might that be?
If you’re thinking Navy kid, you’re right. Although by 1978 I’d been in and out of the service for four years myself.
gbear
Are you using tire rims for the steel part? It makes the meal bi-partisan.
Jonathan Lundell
Forget the slow cooker and the overnight stuff. The reason you’re using cut oats in the first place is for their texture. The slow methods turn them to mush.
Do it on your stovetop, 4:1, boil the shit out of it until it thickens and then turn the heat down, cover and let simmer for half an hour or so.
Use a heavy non-stick pot for the obvious benefits.
cleek
i just make them on the stove top. it takes all of 10 minutes.
schrodinger's cat
@General Winfield Stuck:
Oh no, now we have to start by cutting the oatmeal, before soaking it overnight and then using the rice cooker or slow cooker.
theunmarrieddaughter
here are some waterbath links:
recipezaar.com/No-Mess-Crock-Pot-Steel-Cut-Oats-32210
annkroeker.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/overnight-crockpot-steel-cut-oatmeal/
Personally, I think that the recipes are plain, and I always add apple, walnuts butter, raisins and cinammon to my crockpot oatmeal.
I also spray the smaller bowl/insert liberally, well OVER liberally with Pam as a backup.
Amy
My oats are made with milk, in a microwave, with cut up pieces of banana mixed in. The bananas get soft, nay mushy, and add sweetness and a different texture.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Cain: “Putting water makes it taste like prison food.”
Do tell… ;)
Ootz iz gud wif reel maypull sirup end a bit o’ sinamon. Watur iz fur derrinkeeng, millk iz fur ootz.
LD50
Irish steelcut oatmeal is a pain in the ass to cook. Takes a long time, you have to fuss with it too much, and it usually burns anyway. Just go with old-fashioned rolled oats.
Max
Making oats?
You do know that its available in the store in easy, microwavable portions? They even have strawberries and cream flavored.
@DougJ – here is a repost of The Wire video of 100 best quotes that I nicked from HuffPo.
youtube.com/watch?v=-Sgj78QG9Bg
It will make you feel better about the football thing. Take my word for it. I’m a Bills fan, wide right ring any bells?
Ella in NM
God. You boys can’t operate your computers or make yourself oatmeal.
What the hell are we teaching our kids in school these days, anyway?
cleek
i went to school in Rochester, and after that game “it was wide-right” was the all-purpose wise-ass reply for like three months.
Spike
Use a rice cooker, 50/50 mix of water and apple juice, and cinnamon. Works especially well if you throw it together before bed and set the timer so it’s ready when you get up the next morning.
Ella in NM
@beltane:
They should just be grateful their getting the instant stuff.
Or peanut butter on tortillas, like my kids.
Alan
I used to eat steel-cut oats every morning for a few years. I never used a slow cooker. I just microwaved it on a very low temp setting for about 15 minutes. Obviously, it’s not as “fluffy” cooked that way, but it was acceptable to me.
IIRC, I put 2 oz of the oats to 6 1/2 oz of water & 2 oz of frozen blueberries. I also put in 1/2 oz of flax meal and 1/2 oz of butter. Cooked on the microwave setting of ‘2’ for 15 minutes. I eventually replaced the butter with flax oil. Once cooked I’d add about an ounce of half & half.
The only reason I don’t eat it now is I cut out dairy from my diet and didn’t really care for the oat mill without the half & half.
Thank goodness Quaker is selling steel cut oats now. Before it was sort of expensive and the off brands weren’t consistent in their cut size.
HTH
Just Some Fuckhead
If it sticks, turn down the heat.
Max
@cleek: It was so bad that the movie Buffalo 66 was made.
Between that and the lateral/forward pass in the Music City Miracle, its very hard being a Bills fan.
The Dangerman
Now that he’s no longer the poster boy for bad calls, Joe Pizarcek slept great.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Morbo:
Gruden is the most hideous broadcaster since Randy Cross. He can’t just say anything. He has to declare it, rah, rah, rah. And when he isn’t declaring the hell out of everything, he sounds over-rehearsed. Can’t he just be, ya know, normal? Even when he was stalking the sidelines, riding Tony Dungy’s coattails to a SB victory, he was always making faces like he was doing a hollywood screen test.
I know John swears by Gruden but John is wrong about everything. I have the opposite problem, of course.
Jay S
I generally do steel cut oats in a double boiler, 20-25 minutes, no burning. Stir at the beginning and toward the end. I’ve never had any luck doing them in a slow cooker. Alton Brown swears by it, I just swear at it.
DougJ
It will make you feel better about the football thing.
It was fun til the scene with the kid saying “you gonna take care of me”. Just brutal.
maye
If you coat the cooker with a small amount of veg oil (spray or no spray) it won’t stick.
I prefer brown sugar and berries added at serving time.
schrodinger's cat
@theunmarrieddaughter:
Is this a joke? This sounds more complicated than chem lab.
donovong
Okay, Douggie, here’s the recipe. Take one cup of oatmeal and add it to three cups of boiling water in the saucepan of your choice. Once everything has been combined, throw the pot out the window, grab your keys and haul ass down to Waffle House. One Waffle, double hash browns (scattered, smothered and covered), bacon and a cuppa joe. Life is short – go with gusto!
El Cid
Thank goodness no one listens to us crazy hippies and our weird nostalgia for all that FDR era overly heavy regulation.
Cheer up. It’s not all bad news. Helicopter Ben blames banks for unemployment.
Too bad there’s not anyone in power anywhere who could have implemented any policies to get banks lending rather than just fucking shoveling money at them and their counterparties at their preferred price. Too bad that the trillions handed out by the Treasury and Fed couldn’t possibly have had any strings attached, because soci_alist Stalin Hitler inflation gold Constitution.
Thank goodness the media is there to help keep us weirdo leftie hippies away from the sensible centrists forging policies that Wall Street prefers.
prufrock
According to Alton Brown, add 1/2 cup of half and half.
jl
@Just Some Fuckhead: ditto, if it sticks, turn down the heat.
Also, do you stir? You need to stir once in awhile
(these dang kids today, too lazy to stir, that’s what it is. Why, when I was a lad, I stirred my oats barefoot in the snow on the way to school, uphill. Yessir)
With steel cut oats, I agree with others: rolling boil until it starts to thicken, then durn down heat to a very low simmer.
And, stir well before you start the simmer.
To go Full Foodie on people here, I suggest oats ground Scottish style. The full grain oats are ground down into something like coarse cornmeal. They’re much quicker to cook, between 5 and 10 minutes, depending on your taste for chewiness.
If you have the patience, the idea of the Chicago restaurant of slapping them on a hot griddle and grilling them is a very good idea, especially if you put nuts and fruit in them. But grease up the griddle, or use non-stick.
I think steel-cut oats are too much trouble for every day, though you can do more things with them if you have time and want to make a fancy breakfast. They are great for baking.
See if you can get Scots ground oats in your neighborhood. Where I am, in left coast foodie land, they cost the same.
jeffreyw
@jeffreyw: Oops, shoulda said this is the method for 1 cup oats with 4 cups water.
cathaireverywhere
Rice cooker? What a good idea!
I love steel-cut oats. I usually cook them on the stove the regular way, but I will have to try the rice cooker. I saw the “soak overnight” method on Martha Stewart- seems like a good idea. I put the dried cranberries or dried cherries (not a raisin fan) in when I pour in the dry oatmeal- they plump up nicely. Trader Joe’s generally has a good price on dried fruit. Fresh banana is also good cooked in, as someone else said. I add pecans or walnuts, flax seed, a little brown sugar or maple syrup. I like steel cut oats much better than regular, and definitely better than instant- I like how chewy they are.
Max
@DougJ: You’re in bad place. Go watch some cartoons.
Meep meep
Proper Gander
Dried fruit is great in oatmeal for a camp breakfast. Other things that go well into oatmeal are crushed walnuts and maple syrup. You can even add “breakfasty” meats to it- crumbled ham, bacon or sausage.
jl
For those who are dissing oatmeal, I repudiate, reject, renounce, revile you all, that order. In the next life may you all rot eating nothing but coco-puffs.
I got this quote from an online Brad DeLong macroeconomics lecture (more or less).
“Dr. Johnson said that oats was a grain which in England is fed to horses, but in Scotland is fed to men. To which the Scots say: that is true, and in England they grow fine horses. in Scotland they grow fine men.”
So. There. Oatmeal haters. Also.
General Winfield Stuck
What a treat. Watching a game announced by Larry, Curly, and Moe. jeepers.
Bob In Pacifica
I really love steel-cut oatmeal. I cook mine on the stove. I think oatmeal just sticks. It’s the price you pay.
cleek
Quaker Instant teaches us exactly what needs to go in oatmeal:
apples & cinnamon
OR
maple & brown sugar
“plain” is an abomination and lets not talk about the one with the raisins.
General Winfield Stuck
Are we talking about “oatmeal” on this thread or “oats”. Oatmeal is full of crap, sugar, HFCS, while “oats” is actually good for you all around. You can add stuff to it, but not processed stuff.
jl
@General Winfield Stuck: Oats, oatmeal, cooked oats. It is good and the same to me as long as it does not come instantly pre-ruined out of a little packet out of box.
glaukopis
In the winter, I use a slow cooker on a timer, rubbed with butter before I add the water and steel-cut oats (4 to 1). I also add dried cherries (cut up) or blueberries. No sticking, but there is a crust that develops around the edge – which I like, actually. It tastes like warm oatmeal cookies, but not as sweet. I love the smell when I wake up in the morning, and it’s also nice to know my breakfast is already done when I drag myself out of my warm bed into the cold world.
LD50
Old fashioned rolled oats don’t stick, and unless you’re a total klutz, they don’t burn.
Bhall35
If this thread is in place of an open thread, I’m going to post a video that was met with relative indifference the last time. A Fela Kuti video, because his life story and music is about to open on Broadway, and attention must be paid:
youtube.com/watch?v=h4AA6EuZe-k&feature=related
PS: Bill T. Jones is the choreographer, which is another reason why it will be unmissable.
Martin
@Linkmeister:
Me too. Dad was stationed out of New London – banging around the north atlantic hunting Russians.
And ditto on the rice cooker if you are in a hurry. Even more, the ones designed for the microwave (shut up purists) are absolutely non-stick.
And since it’s the season, go buy a fuckton of cranberries and set about drying them. If you do the slow cook method, chuck a handful of them in at the start. Cranberries go great with oatmeal.
Bill
There’s a German dish I like, called Grünkohl. It’s basically kale and steel-cut oats with sausage.
scarpy
Hey waitaminnit, why were you down after Pats-Colts? Aren’t you a Bills fan? I just assumed what with all the upstate NY stuff.
And if you were down after Pats-Colts for the Pats’ sake, cheer up. Better they get something like this out of the way now. And at least they come away knowing they can take on Manning on his turf.
schrodinger's cat
How do you do that? I love dried cranberries.
General Winfield Stuck
@jl:
To my knowledge when you say oats, it’s just the oats and nothing added, unless you do it yourself. Oatmeal, at least with Quaker products has stuff added, salt , sugar, and fruits and stuff, whether it’s in a small packet or box. The Oats part is good, but the rest is processed additions that are not so good. But then I’m an anti processed food radical from way back,.well, not that far back.
b.dot
Steel-cut oats taste better in my book. They seem to taste nuttier and have a lot more texture, but: Ahem… why the slow-cooker? Do they really taste better that way? I make ’em almost every day a couple of ways:
1) Put everything in a medium covered sauce pan on low (very low). Set the timer on 15 minutes. Come back and stir, making sure you scrape the bottom just in case you get some sticking to the pot. Cook another 2 or 3 minutes.
2) Put everything into a small ceramic microwave-safe bowl. Set the power on high and cook for 7 minutes. Come back and stir. Add a little more milk if they are too dry. Cook for another 3 minutes, stir, and eat.
Adding a dollup of heavy cream at the end will make you want to keep making them for life.
Ingredients: 1/2 cup of oats in a pot with a 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla, pinch of salt, 1/2 cup of milk, about 1 cup of water, 1 tsp of brown sugar.
Maxwell James
Soak them in water overnight, 6:1 ratio, in a pot with a tight cover. Then bring to a boil in the morning, simmer for 20 minutes, and season as you see fit. It’s faster, easier, and works every time.
Alan
@General Winfield Stuck: Quaker sells plain steel cut oats in a small blue tube container. It’s basically the same oats that you can get from Bob’s Red Mill–but with a greater consistency with the size of the cut.
asiangrrlMN
No. You no haz picture of Tunch or any other animal. You no can bez Cole.
And, split-pea soup for dinner and a piece of spelt bread (coming up). Yum.
schrodinger's cat
@asiangrrlMN:
ohai Asiangrrl MN! How have you been?
LD50
I always thought ‘oats’ was the uncooked grain and ‘oatmeal’ was the cooked cereal, regardless of whether General Mills has put anything in it.
Bostondreams
@scarpy:
Well said. And I can’t believe it, but I was not all that upset by Bill’s call on 4th and 2.
It was the Maroney turnover in the end zone that really kills me.
Mnemosyne
@General Winfield Stuck:
One of my friends at work is allergic to oats. No foolin’. Until they did the full-on testing, she couldn’t figure out why Aveeno skin products were giving her hives when they were supposed to be so gentle. She has pretty severe grass allergies, so it made sense, but we were all still like, “Who the hell is allergic to oats?”
Tattoosydney
@Linkmeister:
Yum (although chouriço makes me even happier).
Dustin
Great tips on all the steel-cut oat methods. My own? A small rice cooker with a 1c oats: 1c water & 1/2c whole milk. Why the whole milk? Because 1/2 & 1/2 is too thick and anything less and you might as well just add some corn starch to water and pretend it’s milk. You can bump up the volume of milk slightly if you’re going to add dried fruit during cooking, if you like. Set the rice cooker to porridge mode and enjoy. My usual recipe is as follows:
In cooker:
1c oats
1c water (if your water sucks get a filter)
1/2c whole milk
2 tbsp finely chopped pecans
1 tsp fresh ground flax seed
2 tbsp dried cranberries
For topping:
1 tsp raw honey
It’s relatively quick, I can make extra and dole it out onto a skillet the rest of the week as a pseudo-pancake, and it’s a hit w/ the wife.
As for the complaints upthread about high fructose corn syrup… you do realize that that stuff is only bad because it’s cheap (federal corn subsidies) and they stuff the shit into everything, right? It’s not some boogyman sugar molecule out to make everyone fat. Is it “bad”? Well, yeah, if you let food corps decide how much to add. But if you’re looking for some honest-to-goodness sugar sweetening a small amount of corn syrup in place of the honey isn’t a bad thing. The fructose actually allows you to use less calories for your given level of sweetening than if you used honey or plain old table sugar. But, as with all things, use in moderation.
Tattoosydney
@asiangrrlMN:
Hello. How you? I’m on my third day off work… damn bacteria.
Martin
@schrodinger’s cat:
Wash the cranberries and drop them a handful or two at a time in boiling water until the skin pops (a minute or so), then quickly haul them out (we’re not trying to make sauce here). Spread them out on jelly roll pans only one-high and stick them in your oven on the lowest temp – mine goes down to 150. It’ll take a while to dry them – they’re juicy buggers – maybe 8 hours or so. If you can, open the over door and circulate the air every so often (I try to do it every hour) just to help get the humidity out. They’ll keep virtually forever if you can get them uniformly dried – particularly in the freezer.
Keith G
Gosh, I’m late to this.
1) Buck up Doug. I know its got to be an effort helping to carry the load keeping us idjits occupied, but dude I appreciate you.
2) Been using McCann’s Steel Cut for a year since I got the recipe from Ezra. I use a slow cooker on a high setting and a timer. I use a bit of spray coating. Yup some stickage, but dems da breaks. When I wake in the morning to the wonderful aroma of cinnamon and oatmeal, its a good day.
The slow cooker soaks and is rinsed out easily and the process begins again that evening.
David
My steel cut oats cooking method: 2 to 1 ratio of boiling water to oats. Turn down to lowest setting immediately upon putting oats in the water. Cover. Cook a few minutes until all water is absorbed. The oats are then cooked, but have excellent texture. Too much water will make them soggy, ruining the point of having them be steel cut.
Martin
@General Winfield Stuck:
You can get organic oatmeal. It’s the same stuff as steel-cut, only ground up. You might be thinking of quick oats – which is oatmeal, cooked, and then rolled. The cooking step opens up all kinds of opportunities for guys like Quaker to screw with the stuff. The quick oats are Quakers bread-and-butter.
Randy G
I never cared for oatmeal until I tried steel cut oats…. and discovered that it’s really good. I make it on the stove top, which can be a bit of a pain, but I think it’s worth it. Whether you use the cooker or on the stove top, continue to use 4:1 water:oats ratio, but stop cooking it while it’s still a little runny. It’ll continue to cook and thicken up in the bowl. Of course, stirring it occasionally will prevent a lot of the sticking…. but I’ve found that overcooking makes it stick a lot. On the stove top, once the water is boiling, drop in the oats, turn down the heat to low and give it about 25 minutes, but check it a little earlier.
Top with brown sugar and cinnamon … maybe some raisins or cranberries too. I also know some folks who like adding a little milk on top.
Randy G
@David:
This sounds like a reasonable idea too, if you prefer more texture in the final product. Experiment. I think I’m gonna try it with less water tomorrow.
General Winfield Stuck
@Martin:
It’s kind of confusing. But I do use Quaker Quick Oats with the only ingredient as 100percent Whole grained Natural Rolled Oats. Just shaved to make them cook faster I thought. I don’t think they are precooked.
As opposed to Quaker Oatmeal that has other ingredients added.
Cheryl from Maryland
For a while my spouse’s doctor said he should eat steel-cut oatmeal for breakfast to cut cholesterol. After burnt pans from his cooking and moi spending over 1/2 hour over boiling water in the am stirring the goop, fuck that. Go with a nice poached egg, and fruit.
General Winfield Stuck
@General Winfield Stuck:
Actually, I use Great Value Quick Oats, but I think they’re the same as Quaker ones.
KRK
@Martin:
Actually, “organic” has nothing to do with the cut. One can produce any cut of oats — steel cut, thick rolled, regular rolled, or quick — with either organically or conventionally grown oats.
jl
When I’m in a hurry, rolled oats are just fine. Oats is oats is oatmeal is oatmeal, unless it comes in a litle packet with weird junk mixed in. I don’t trust that stuff and it tastes weird.
General Winfield Stuck
I like my oats rolled with Duck Duck Duck tape.
I believe that’s game set match and checkmate.
CatStaff
Do the steel cut oats have husks in them? That’s what has turned me off oatmeal over the years — the husks.
jl
@CatStaff: I’ve never had any husks in my oats or oatmeal. You must have gone reeaall hunnerd percent Mr. Natural with your oats.
Joel
fuck the colts.
Kayla Rudbek
@jeffreyw: Whenever I make steel cut oats in the microwave, they invariably go over the sides of the bowl, so half the oatmeal winds up on the turntable. Maybe it’s because I like my oatmeal thick enough to stand up a spoon in.
HY
I make steel cut oats almost every morning and it only takes 10 minutes for excellent results. Here’s how you do it: Take a cup of oats, or however much you make, put them in a bowl and add water to cover plus more to allow for soaking. Let them soak overnight. The next morning put the soaked oats in a pan and add a cup of milk or so and some more water and a good pinch salt. The ratio should be about 3 parts liquid to 1 cup oats. Add raisins if you like. Bring to a simmer and stir occasionally to often until they’re nice and creamy, adding more liquid if you like them soupier. Eat with maple syrup.
Dustin
@Kayla Rudbek Use a bigger bowl? That’d be my solution. Either that or sit in front of the microwave and pop the door open every time it foams up. If you do that though you might as well just cook them in a sauce pan; they’ll taste better and you won’t have to try and see through that annoying microwave-blocking mesh door.
wmd
I use steel cut oats to make “gretwurst”, a breakfast meat.
boil chuck roast in stockpot, use plenty of water.
Remove cooked beef, allow to cool.
cook steel cut oats in stock water – about 3 or 4:1 ratio water:oats
when water as been taken up by oats remove from heat. Grind cooked beef (I use food processor, my grandma used a hand grinder) and stir into cooked oats.
Refrigerate or freeze in appropriate containers.
Cut into patties and fry over medium heat until crust forms, then flip and fry other side.
I usually salt lightly during prep, then salt while in the skillet.
My grandma was first generation American, German parents, I identify this as a form of German scrapple.
chiggins
I go 3:1 like so:
For a single serving, I have one of those Nissan thermos-type food jars. Put 1/3 cup of steel-cut oats in them with 1 cup of water the night before. Shake it, baby. Wake up in the morning, add butter and brown sugar.
This works every time.
barbara
I don’t have a slow cooker, so can’t help with that. But I make steel cut oats (4:1 ratio) and simmer for 30 minutes and they come out perfectly. You need to stir them now and again so that they don’t stick. But here’s my tip. I make enough for five or six servings and then for several mornings I heat up the leftovers in the microwave — it comes out great.
Jay C
Heh – what you can learn on the Intertubes! While I love oatmeal – and I think McCann’s Irish is Teh Only; the Dom Perignon of oatmeal – I never knew (before this) there was any other way to make the steel-cut stuff, other than the instructions on the can – i.e. simmer in a pot for half an hour, stirring every five minutes – the hiatuses presumably built in so that 19th-Century Irish housewives could chase the sheep out of their kitchens – the presoak idea sounds great. Although the Quick-Cook is my favorite – plain, of course, the flavored stuff is an abomination – three minutes in the nuker. Yumm.
Kincade
I see you have some good suggestions but here are more. :-)
My wife has a standard way to do regular oatmeal but never tried it on steel-cut, so we did this morning.
– Start with a lot of water and get to a rolling boil. Maybe 1 Qt or so..
– Add oats to rapidly boiling water (1/3 – 1/2 cup per serving)
– Boil 7-10 minutes based on how soft you want.
Then, in a smooth and fairly rapid movement:
– Dump oats thru a strainer and catch some water back in the pan.
– Put strainer with oats back on hot steamy pan and cover
– Steam the oats for 2-3 minutes.
They come out un-slimy and separated; good!
You can do this with regular oats too; just cook and steam for less time.
My daughter also has another way, similar to some above; she writes:
Since I don’t have time in the mornings to cook something that takes 40+ minutes, I cook them overnight. Add 1 cup of oats to 4 cups of boiling water, boil 1 minute, then turn them off and stick them in the fridge. In the morning, they will have absorbed the water and they’ll be done. Then I just microwave a bowlful for breakfast. You could also reheat the whole pot in the morning over medium-low heat–it would take a few minutes.
——
See if either work for you.
TOW
I love steel cut oats. The slow cooker has worked for me, but a rice cooker with a porridge setting is stellar (using a little less water.)
I put dried fruit in at the beginning of the cooking. Cranberries, raisins, & mango retain their shape. Bananas do not (obviously) but taste quite good. Blueberries taste great, but give off enough color to make the oatmeal purple. This might be a plus if you have kids.
Steel cut oats have so much more flavor than rolled oats. That quaker instant crap will never be in my home again. Bob’s Red Mill is my brand, but I haven’t tried any others yet.
NobodySpecial
I haven’t had a bowl of oatmeal in probably 25 years or 30. I may have to give this a try.
Dustin
@wmd
Hmmm.. never heard of that but it sounds good. I’m thinking I might try that recipe. Maybe add a little bit of duck fat if needed (because everything’s better with duck fat), some ground cinnamon, and stuff it all in a 36mm hog casing.
Dammitall. I’m still in the hospital and you people are making me hungry! lol
Randy G
I tried a 3:1 water:steel-cut ratio this morning (rather than 4:1) and like the increased texture. On the stove top, as usual, about 20 minutes. Didn’t even stir while cooking and it didn’t stick at all. It’s a keeper.
BTW, for those near a Trader Joe’s, in addition to McCann’s — the brand that got me hooked — they also carry Country Choice organic, which I find every bit as good… at about 1/2 the price.
Deb T
Steel cut just tastes better, nicer texture.
I use instant at work all the time though. Stir in a little half n’half and peanut butter. Peanut butter gives you a bit of protein.
Tom Betz
Mmmmm… reading all these variations on Steel Cut Oats makes me want to apply a variant of Alton Brown’s Rice Pilaf cooking technique to it and see what comes out.
bishophicks
Toast the oats in a pan with butter prior to cooking. Take a couple extra minutes but helps boost flavor and makes the kitchen smell great.
I use a 4:1 oats to liquid ratio, but some of that liquid is water and some is light cream.
My recipe (serves 3 people):
3/4 cup of oats, toasted
dash of salt
2.5 cups water
1/2 cup of cream
1 T maple syrup (approximate)
1 T brown sugar (approximate)
I cook in a rice cooker with a non stick insert, so it never sticks to the pot. I add the cream near the end and add the syrup and brown sugar just before serving.
I only discovered this 3 or 4 years ago. The very first time I made it, my son who was 4 or 5 at the time ate an adult sized serving. It is still his favorite breakfast. It takes about 40 minutes to cook, though, so we only have it on weekends.
reality-based
OK, I can’t believe I’ve skimmed this whole thread, and nobody has suggested the obvious – a double boiler!
I am a long-time fan of McCann’s Steel-cut Irish Oatmeal – NOT the quick-cooking stuff – and I can make it perfectly ever time – no sticking, no scorching.
Get yourself a double boiler.
Fill bottom part with water – it should almost, but not quite, touch the bottom of the top pan. Bring to a slow boil.
While bottom part is heating up, put oats and 4x water, plus a pinch of salt, in top part of double boiler. Cover with the lid, replace over boiling water in bottom part, and let cook for 30 minutes or so. Oatmeal will not stick if water in the bottom of the double boiler does not actually touch the top part.
And even if it does stick – no big deal, since it is only cooked by steam-generated heat, cannot scorch.
After breakfast, put the oatmeal pan in the sink, fill with cold water, and let soak – then wash it with the supper dishes.
I used to speed up the process by setting up the double boiler, and letting the oatmeal soak in the water, (hot) overnight – then just turning on the stove as I headed for the coffeepot
TOW
@Tom Betz:
Here’s Alton Brown’s oatmeal recipe for a slow cooker:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/overnight-oatmeal-recipe/index.html