I did it in the rice cooker for this morning. It was good, although Himself jumped the gun on it and ate some at 7:30 when the timer clearly said 8 and the little song had CLEARLY not yet played. However, I miss doing it with buttermilk. I do have some of that dehydrated buttermilk powder which I might try adding next time.
Really, is leaving milk in there overnight so bad? Or cream? I mean, it’s a cool kitchen, I put it in at say 10 or 11 at night, the rice cooker starts up around 6 or so AM.
I bought some of these suckers because everyone on the SDMB was banging on about them, and found them to be gross. Really gritty, even after a night’s soaking. What am I doing wrong?
In my experience, jjimm, they just take a bit of getting used to. They are a very different texture from rolled oats. Even when properly cooked, they have a very different texture. Although, I don’t know that I’d call them “gritty,” so maybe you could tell us how you cooked them, exactly.
Zsofia, I really can’t imagine there being much of a problem there. Are you timer-cooking with your rice cooker or slow-cooking?
Time cooking.
And jjimm, gritty is wrong. (Chewier, nuttier, yes, but not gritty.)
Someone else mentioned “soaking” oats overnight. Um BLECCH! That seems like they’d turn mushy before you even cooked them.
So, you soaked-oats fans who’ve had them both soaked and unsoaked, why would anyone choose soaked?
I like to cook steel-cut oats like they were risotto. I melt an amount of butter that probably counteracts all the health benefits of oats, stir in 1/2 C or so of oats until they’re all buttery, then slowly add hot water (usually about 1 cup, with a pinch of salt!) until it’s done, stirring with every addition. Usually I’ll get impatient about halfway through, dump in the rest of the water, cover it, and let it simmer for 10-20 minutes instead.
Golden syrup is delicious on top, but sometimes I’ll just let the oats firm up, sprinkle on a little more salt, and eat them as a more savory dish. (Or I’ll let them firm up and eat them with golden syrup. Whatever.)
They end up soaked if you stick them on time cook over night in the rice maker, and I noticed no texture difference.
How the hell do you open the can?!
got it
Glad I could help.
If you had any other username I wouldn’t have laughed so hard. Bravo :D.
Not these little bastards, though. They still have their armor on them.
I soaked them in water overnight, drained the starchy water off, mixed with a mix of milk and water, then simmered for about 5 minutes. Is that right? Maybe I just don’t like the texture by default.
No, that’s way incredibly wrong. No soaking, ever!
Either cook them on the stovetop for about a half hour, or slow cook them overnight but the only time they’re in liquid they should be actually cooking.
5 minutes is by no means long enough to cook these guys. That’s why they do what they do to quick cooking oats - because the real ones take a long time.
5 minutes is far, far too short a time to cook normally. I don’t know how soaking affects anything. I don’t see why you’d have to soak anyway. You don’t need to.
Yeah, I would think about 20-30 minutes would be an absolute minimum for a stovetop cook time for these.
Reporting back on my own experimentation here. I was in the grocery store last night and thought to check the cereal aisle. They had McCain’s “quick cooking” steel cut oats which I didn’t quite understand so I bypassed them. They also had Quaker brand steel cut oats so I bought a package. Also grabbed a bag of Sun-maid mixed fruit bits and a small can of evaporated milk - thought someone here had mentioned that as an option but now I can’t find it in the thread.
I found my small Crock-pot - it came along with my big one (6 quarts). I checked it out and it only holds 2 cups (it seems to be designed for dips and fondues) so I decided to try the rice-cooker method KneadtoKnow suggested.
Buttered it thoroughly, added 1 c. oats. In a measuring cup, poured the evaporated milk, a cup or so of regular milk (skim), and enough water to bring it to 4 cups. Added that to the rice cooker along with the contents of the dried-fruit packet, and started it on “keep warm” mode about 10 PM.
At 6:15 this morning I checked the contents out. Hmmm - soupier than I’d expected. So I pressed the “cook” switch on the rice cooker, but it switched itself back to keep warm in just a minute or two.
Dished some out, and it wasn’t quite as soupy as I’d feared, I guess what little free liquid there was must have been extra-visible when I looked inside, giving a soupy appearance. Added a spoonful of brown sugar and dug in.
Not bad. The dried fruit wasn’t great - it had an oddly metallic taste and the raisins had plumped up and gotten that gross soggy texture - but the oats themselves were nicely chewy. The kids tried it and weren’t impressed; then again, they like the instant flavored varieties. So I’ve got some leftovers for tomorrow.
Definitely worth exploring further. I think I’ll try adding the dried fruit later, like a couple of minutes before serving. And maybe a different variety.
I did think about trying to do it next time by using the actual rice-cooker “cook” cycle since that did shut itself off before the stuff was boiled dry, but when I stirred the pot up, there were some browned bits so I think the “cook” cycle is too hot. My rice cooker is the standard type, no “porridge” cycle.
I may also try the small crockpot and a halved recipe. Also Alton’s recipe that involves toasting the oats and cooking it on the stovetop.
Dunno if I’ll ever love oats, but these are actually edible unlike rolled oats.
Of interest, in the reviews of Alton’s “overnight oats” recipe:
First, I don’t have a slow cooker of any kind. So maybe my comments are biased by that.
Do you guys really think you need a slow cooker for oatmeal? It only takes about 25 minutes anyway to cook. I guess the advantage of a SC is that you just put the ingredients in and walk away? But it only takes maybe 1/2 hour at the most! Less if you like chewier oatmeal. And it’s 25 minutes of just sitting on the stove; there’s no work involved except maybe stirring a couple of times. I’m not seeing the advantage to using a SC is what I mean.
Re being soupy: I prefer it more like a grain than soupy. I made some two nights ago and it seemed really soupy when done, but okay fine, I’ll still eat it. Except I had already had Cap’n Crunch for dinner so I just put the fresh oatmeal in the fridge. The next day: no more soupy. I had it for dinner last night and breakfast this morning. Very side-dish-grain like. Chewy like a bulgar & barley dish. Damn it was good!
Yes - the advantage is that you put it in the cooker and walk away. As in, start it the night before when you’re not doing your morning-frantic eat-and-get-out-the-door-fast thing. In the slow cooker, it’s ready the minute you get up, no need to assemble it and keep an eye on it in the kitchen (I personally wouldn’t feel comfortable starting it then going to shower while it cooked, for example).
So - do you “need” a slow cooker? No, not really. Does it make the logistics easier in some situations? absolutely.