I just had a bowl of Wheatena-delicious! What hot cereals have you tried and/or liked?
Cream of Wheat or other farina brands are good. Grits are great.
OTOH, oatmeal is not for eating. The least snotty possible oatmeal is still too snotty for me. And I normally don’t care much about food texture. Runny egg whites are fine w me. But not snotty oatmeal.
Good old Quaker Oats. Regular, not instant. Pop in the microwave at 50% power for three minutes, watch the oatmeal bubble up to just the edge of the bowl before the power cycles off (so entertainment as well). Only the bowl to clean up.
Perfectly cooked, not snotty in the least.
Cream of Wheat. Not too thick, not too runny. Butter and sugar. A little milk at the end.
I didn’t expect to see my favorite in the OP but Wheatena is awesome.
My biggest gripe with hot cereals is that they take a long time to cool below scalding. It’s super wet yet self insulating (like all of us), both while solidifying, and I want it now!
I’ve enjoyed every hot cereal I’ve tried exactly cream of wheat. It just tastes like paste to me.
But i like oatmeal. Especially the thick steel-cut oatmeal that takes too long for me to ever bother to make it myself. (But I’ve had it at cafeterias. Yum!) I like wheatena. What a pleasant, nutty flavor and i enjoy the gritty texture. Looking at grits, I’m always afraid it will be cream of wheat. But it tastes so pleasant, i forgive it the boring texture. And I’ve had oddball hot cereals, like something called “12 grain” (which was made of 12 different grains, although a few cheated by being similar) all of which I’ve enjoyed.
When I was a fairly small child and allergic enough to wheat to avoid it, once in a while I got the treat of Cream of Rice cereal (when my mother had time to cook it). With raisins or chopped up dates, and of course lots of sugar on top, melting on the hot cereal. This may have been only on weekends or holidays, because it not only took a little longer to make, but it also took longer to eat.
I don’t know why they didn’t try serving me oatmeal, I wasn’t allergic to oats. I suspect my mother didn’t like it from her own childhood, and didn’t want to make it.
Bob’s Red Mill Seven Grain hot cereal.
It’s technically porridge, but Bob couldn’t call it that, because Americans don’t eat porridge. As far as Americans know, porridge is something poor peasants ate in the old fairy tales. We don’t know exactly what it is, all we know is we don’t have any over here. It’s got to be either “oatmeal” or “hot cereal.”
Meanwhile, over in Scotland, they delight in their daily porridge a.k.a. oatmeal.
That reminds me of something: No true American puts sugar on their porridge. Why? Because they put it on oatmeal!
I put it on first, then get the bacon going so they’re both done around the same time. I’ve mentioned several times that I don’t like it sweet, so it’s seasoned with thyme and topped with a fried egg. Worth the wait. Rolled oats, on the other hand, are gross and only fit for inclusion in cookies.
I have most of my cereals hot - all the cooked ones: oatmeal, semolina, sorghum porridge, maize meal - but also, I have my All Bran, Rice Krispies or Weetbix with hot milk.
My perfect bowl of oatmeal is:
2/3 cup oats
2/3 cup milk
2/3 cup water
Microwave for 2 minutes. It stops just before the bowl is about to bubble over.
Add cinnamon, raisins, and nuts (walnut or pecan).
Return to the microwave for 1 more minute at 60% power, which will finish cooking it without bubbling over.
Your measurements, bowl sizes, and microwaves may vary.
As long as it is equal parts oat, milk and water, right?
Right. But whether it boils over or not will depend on your microwave and the size of your bowl. (Mine is about half full when I start cooking it.)
With my preferred bowls and 50% power for 3 minutes I can watch the oatmeal boil up (while the microwave is heating) and recede (while the microwave isn’t). Each cycle it gets closer and closer to the edge, until on the last cycle it is on the verge of boiling over. Fun to watch, and probably specific to my bowl/microwave combination.
I am easily amused…
That’s how I developed my technique. I got tired of letting the microwave run at full power for about ten seconds, then have to stop and stir, repeat half a dozen times or more. I wanted oatmeal I didn’t have to babysit.
Corn meal mush. Brings me back to my childhood weekend mornings at my grandmother’s house.
My spouse and kid both think it’s disgusting. More for me.
My breakfast this morning was oatmeal, regular, not instant, simmered 5 minutes in whole milk, on the stove, not microwaved. Then add a little brown sugar, walnuts, and raisins.
Quaker, or other steel cut oats, simmered in chicken stock til done. A drizzle of hot honey
My two favorites for most of my 75 years:
Good old Quaker Oats, NOT instant
and
Plain old Oat Bran, also not instant if there even is such a thing.
I like either one with a small dab of butter and a pinch of salt in the boiling water,
served either with sugar/Splenda, or with real Maple Syrup.
I don’t know why I’ve never tried microwaving it.
Malt-o-Meal was my favorite. It makes me sad that I can’t have it anymore.