I really want to start eating oatmeal more regularly for its various health benefits, and I’ve really enjoyed steel-cut when I’ve had it before. Tell me your secrets for buying, cooking, and “doctoring.”
I put soy sauce on my oatmeal. It’s fan-fucking-tastic!
The only oats you’ll ever need. I started using these to brew with, then started eating them as well. The only oats allowed in the house any more.
Depending on mood, I have hit them with: cream, butter, bacon (so much for “healthy”), fruit, brown sugar and cinnamon, and I believe I once had them with a touch of genuine maple syrup. Of course Lyle’s is always an option.
We had a nice thread on oatmeal here a while back. Some people use the crock pot method for cooking oatmeal overnight so it’s ready in the morning. I haven’t tried it yet myself but I intend to try it someday soon.
I’ve haven’t bought instant oatmeal since I first tried steel cut oats. I also use McCann’s I like it with brown sugar and sometimes add fruit.
I was using McCanns but I just tried a bag I bought at Whole Foods and it was INCREDIBLE. It was called “Bob’s Steel-Cut Oats” or something like that.
I kind of do the Alton Brown thing with toasting them first. I use half milk and half water in the pot. All water is blech. No salt until after they’re done cooking. Ignore the package on this; they’re wrong. I like them with butter and salt, or butter and brown sugar. Sometimes I sauté some apples up and add that, or raisins. But mostly I like them savory. I’ve made them with garlic and onion too, as a side dish. I like them chewy, not mushy at all. I usually make enough for 2-3 meals, although it’s best the first time right out of the pot.
I freakin’ LOVE Irish oatmeal. I decry the years I thought oatmeal was gross. So much wasted time. It’s all thanks to a thread here on the boards that I gave it another try. That alone is worth all the subscription fees I’ll ever pay here. 
Another McCann’s recommendation here. I used to think I hated oatmeal, but I used to not have anything but Quaker Instant oatmeal too, which is really more of a slurry, and tend to be disgusting.
And you know what else is good in them? A shot of bourbon and a quarter teaspoon of vanilla extract. Mmmmmmmm…
Yup, McCanns. I just follow the directions on the box for starting it the night before, then add a little maple syrup right before eating.
Maybe some crushed toasted pecans.
I cook mine in my fancy fuzzy logic rice cooker on the “porridge” setting. It’s awesome; I just load up the rice cooker the night before, set the timer, and wake up to freshly cooked oatmeal.
I don’t like anything on my oatmeal. It’s got such great flavor I only add a little salt.
Why do they have to be steel cut. Can’t you cut them with aluminum or some other metal?
I do Alton Brown’s, either with McCann’s or Bob’s. I add in a metric asston of raisins and dried cranberries, and also a lot more brown sugar and cinnamon. (I only do it every so often.) I used to think I hated oatmeal until I tried the real thing.
Steel’s just the cheapest. From the wiki:
A local health food store sells organic steel cut oats with no brand name. I can’t imagine my mornings without it. Since it takes longer to cook (~30 min.), I usually cook enough for breakfast for the entire week and just reheat in the microwave as needed. A touch of cinnamon is all I add to it.
The REAL Breakfast of Champions.
OMG, I had never even considered this. That’s pretty much how I eat grits, but it hadn’t occurred to me to try oatmeal this way. I’ll definitely give that a try!
All righty, then.
Sunday morning, I made Alton’s recipe for breakfast (with eggs and hot sausage, yum!). I had to use margarine instead of butter, and I think maybe I shouldn’t have put the lid on while it simmered, because it wound up rather soupy. Also, I used way more brown sugar and cinnamon than he calls for. But it was quite a successful little effort, if I do say so myself.
Of course, nothing could have prepared me for the high fiber magic this meal worked on me for the remainder of the day, but that’s a different story.
Now, I’m getting ready to try Alton’s overnight recipe, which involves a slow cooker. I did not purchase a slow cooker, technically, I purchased a rice cooker, but it has a “warm” setting which I think should work the same as “low” on a slow cooker.
My question at this point is, I’m not big on figs or cranberries, and I can’t much imagine that dried ones will please me significantly more. I’ve already procured dried cherries to take the place of one of them … any recommendations on a replacement for the other?
Oh, and I have yet to try them savory, but that’s on the agenda for next weekend.
I have never gotten Alton Brown’s slow-cooker recipe to work. I always end up with a sour, purple, curdled, watery mess. Any tips?
Blueberries?? I don’t think I would put them in until the end though.
After reading the recipe, I realize now that if you were going to be a stickler or at least a quasi stickler and go by the recipe by having two fruits included that blueberries (if you could find dried ones) and cherries would not probably be a good mix.
I think just blueberries or** just **cherries would be good.
I don’t use AB’s recipe, as adorable as he is and all, I just do a low tech version.
Butter your crock pot to prevent stickage. No additional butter needed, you’ll still get a bit of flavor from it and without it the crockpot is hell to clean.
4:1 liquid to oats (I like 1/4 milk, YMMV) So in my case, 1 c oats, 1 c milk & 3 c water.
Dried fruit, a generous handful, maybe a cup. (I like apples, raisins, cranberries, cherries…never used anything purple.)
Chopped nuts (usually walnuts here, pecans when I’m feeling flush)
1 tsp vanilla
Coupla dashes of nutmeg and/or cinnamon
You can toast the oats, the nuts or both. Adds a nice flavor, works just as well without toasting though. We like apple/raisin/cinn/walnut, cran/pecan/nutmeg, so far I haven’t come up with one we didn’t like, but those are the two I make most often.
Toss in buttered crock, turn on low, sleep and wake up to fabulosity.