Upon further review … it did take a good 25 minutes.
But well worth it!
Though it is best slow cooked, it does work surprisingly well fast cooked in the microwave.
You need a fairly tall bowl as the oats tend to boil over. Mix a cup of oatmeal and a cup and half water. Put three minutes on microwave on high and watch carefully. Whenever the stuff starts to boil over stop the microwave and stir for a few seconds then restart the microwave. You will need to stop and restart several times to do the whole 3 minutes without boiling over. Stir again and give a couple of minutes to cool down. Add a pinch or two of salt and soft brown sugar.
I don’t use much salt in cooking, but for oatmeal it really does help bring out the flavour. Adding milk is fine, but I find I don’t miss not having milk with mine.
Here’s the Good Eats recipe placed in a more recipe-like format:
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup steel cut oats
3 cups boiling water
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon low-fat buttermilk
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
In a large saucepot, melt the butter and add the oats. Stir for 2 minutes to toast. Add the boiling water and reduce heat to a simmer. Keep at a low simmer for 25 minutes, without stirring.
Combine the milk and half of the buttermilk with the oatmeal. Stir gently to combine and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Spoon into a serving bowl and top with remaining buttermilk, brown sugar, and cinnamon.
Personally, I’m not fond of buttermilk and, while the toasting-it-in-butter-first part sounds tasty, it also sounds like more than I want to mess with first thing in the AM. So, I’m going with the crockpot version – 4 cups of water and 1/2 cup of half-and-half to one cup of the oats, set on low overnight in my smaller crockpot. I’m doing the whole 1 cup because my mom and dad (both oatmeal fans) are stopping by tommorrow morning and will want to try it.
By the way – neither these Good Eats recipes, nor the recipe on the back of the oats tin call for salt. What’s up with that? I’ve always used a bit of salt in my old-fashioned oatmeal.
Thanks.
It mentions why you don’t add salt while cooking in the good eats transcript. Salt takes water away from the oats, meaing they don’t absorb as much water so don’t cook properly. It must be the same principle as with cooking dried beans. Anyway, he does mention adding a bit of salt if you want after it’s cooked.
Ah… thanks – I only skimmed the transcript. Well, I’m off to get my crockpot loaded. Will report back in the morning after I’ve eaten my porridge.
Jess, hang on to that tin. If you find a place that sells it in bulk, it makes a lovely container to refil and it’s much less expensive in the bulk bins. Check the grocers that cater to the health food crowd.
Does anyone have any tips regarding the overnight cook method? We’ve tried that a few times and found that it tends to clump at the bottom and side of the slow-cooker, and the clumped part does not tend to be good eats.
I’ve only been eating it for a little while now, but the best thing I’ve found are the Reynolds Slow Cooker Liners. It’s just a plastic bag that fits into the slow cooker. It provides some separation from the dish so the sides don’t heat as much. For clean up, you just remove the bag and pitch it.
Well, it was delicious, but almost too creamy. I like my oatmeal with a bit more ‘tooth.’ I’ll finish this pot up (I’ve got at least two more breakfasts in there) and try a different cooking method next time. It did need salt. BTW – it was a bit bland when I first tasted it upon getting up this morning. So I added a teaspoon of salt to the pot, went upstairs and did my 45 minutes on the treadmill, then came down and ate. As I said, delicious!
The Good Eats recipe sounds delicious, but the way I do it might appeal to you, Jess, especially.
I’ve always bought my steel-cut oats at the co-op in bulk, so I never had a recipe. So I just followed the recipe on the rolled oats box. It takes around 15 minutes to cook and it is substantial – what you’re calling “tooth” I guess! I love it.
We often eat it with applesauce and fresh fruit, or plain or vanilla yogurt on top, with fruit. It refrigerates and re-heats well. We have taken it to work cold and reheated for an office breakfast.
Loves me some Irish Oats!!
I love the McCann’s steel cut oats, too.
My Zojirushi rice cooker has a “porridge” setting, so I tried that. Lo and behold, it cooks the oatmeal perfectly, and you don’t have to stir it or stand over it at all. Mind you, you should add somewhat less water, as none is lost during the cooking process from evaporation.
I like it with raisins or other dried fruit tossed in at the beginning of cooking, sweetened with a dollop of honey and thinned with a tablespoon of cream.
Once upon a time, on Martha Stewart’s old show, she had a guest who made “bruleed” oatmeal. It was steel-cut oats with maple syrup and cream and walnuts… then the lady covered the surface with turbinado sugar and hit it with a blowtorch, just like creme brulee.
I’ve never actually tried this, but in my mind I have held it up as the pinnacle of breakfast decadence.
BTW–I tried Alton Brown’s overnight crockpot recipe for oats, but quartered to serve just me. It burned.
The less you have in there, the faster it is going to cook. You quartered the recipe, so you pretty much quartered the cook time. Better off cooking either the stove top method or doing the whole batch of overnight and stashing the rest in the refrigerator for later.
Thanks to this thread, I bought a can of McCann’s Steel Cut and I can’t believe I have spent my entire life without this food. It was so good! I despise “regular” American oatmeal although I try it every few years because the picture on the box looks good, so I think maybe I’ll develop a taste for it. But no, it never changes from a combination of wallpaper paste/infant vomit.
But the steel cut . . . oh my. I thought I’d have to load it up with sugar but I actually think I prefer it with just salt. It tastes almost like risotto; certainly it has the texture of it. Many thanks to What the … !!! for starting the thread, to Jess for providing the Good Eats recipe, and for everyone who talked about how good it was! My tummy is most grateful to you.
I’m another convert to Steel Cut Oats. Thanks AB!
I did the basic simmer for 25 minutes or so, then add butter/brown sugar/blueberries thing. Delicious.
However, since I am never satisfied and constantly crave variety, I started experimenting. “Why,” I wondered, “Must my oatmeal be sweet?” Oats have a pretty neutral, nutty flavor. Couldn’t they be made more savory?
So, I made up several batches substituting chicken, beef and vegetable stock for the water. It was very good. Different, but good. Perhaps not something I’d want every day, but the great texture is there with a much heartier flavor.
What I’ve wondered about Oats is whether they can be refrigerated or frozen after being cooked. I’d love to eat them for breakfast more often, but I don’t usually have 45 minutes to spare. If I could make up a big batch, freeze 'em or stick 'em in the chill chest, then plunk out what I needed, why that’d be great!
P.S. I am not a nutritional anthropologist.
Zackly! It’s *just *like risotto.
I’m sorry. The words “oatmeal” and “decadence” are incompatible.
I spent my whole train ride thinking of savory ways in which to prepare steel-cut oats. I think the restaurant industry is missing out on a whole new side-dish trend.
I haven’t tried yet but I bet they’d freeze up great. I made mine using the Good Eats recipe slightly modified: I used 3 cups water and added 1/2 cup milk (no buttermilk) after simmering for 25 minutes; I used the remaining 1/2 cup milk to pour on the top in my bowl. They came out of the pot thicker than if I had added that last cup of liquid (looked just like risotto) and I bet they would freeze up great that way.
I didn’t realize they’d expand quite so much - 1 cup uncooked equals 4 cups cooked. That’s a bit much for me, since I am just one, even though I did eat it for dinner last night and breakfast this morning. It’s so filling I couldn’t eat much in a serving, though. I’ll try freezing some tonight and see how it ends up. Refrigerating - at least overnight - didn’t seem to affect them at all. I heated the leftovers up in the microwave this morning and they were just as delicious as last night.
A somewhat-savory oats recipe I tried was to stuff squash with it. I don’t remember if it was a recipe I found somewhere, or if I just made it up. All I remember was it was gooooood.
IIRC:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Poke a few holes in the skin of a whole acorn squash, and microwave it for about 10 minutes, turning it over and rotating 90 degrees halfway through.
(If you’re using leftover oats, pop then in the microwave at this point to warm them through.)
Let the squash rest for about 10 minutes.
Handle the squash carefully, because it will be hot and full of steam! Cut it in half and scoop out the seeds.
Stuff each half with about 1/2 cup of warm cooked oats mixed with ~1 Tbsp of butter.
Bake the stuffed squash for 15 minutes. Sprinkle grated parmesan on top, and return to the oven and bake until the cheese is just beginning to brown.
I often make a double batch, as they refrigerate quite nicely. The leftover batch will be a bit softer and tenderer than when just cooked, but otherwise they’re just as good. Just microwave 'em up with maybe an added spoonful of water and you’re good to go.