# Steel Cut Oatmeal



## inchrisin (Oct 20, 2014)

I've been eating a lot of oatmeal lately.  I've been jazzing it up with a little brown sugar, honey, or butter.  I've bought a tube of instant, I've bought a tube of old fashioned, and now I want to try my hand at steel cut (pinhead) oats.  I know they'll take a long time to cook, but I'm wondering if I can cook them and save them in the fridge for a few days, or in the freezer for a week or so. Surely these would be better reheated than instant.

What do you think?

Also, what are your favorite things to put on oatmeal?  I've been trying to keep it really cheap lately.


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## Dawgluver (Oct 20, 2014)

I recently bought a tube of McCann's Irish Steel-Cut Oats at Costco.  They are delicious.  I cook them in my little rice cooker, and keep a tub of them in the fridge for the week.  I like them with golden raisins, sometimes craisins, maple syrup and a sprinkle of cinnamon.


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## buckytom (Oct 20, 2014)

mccann's is the choice of irish folk everywhere. it's sort of a joke in the emerald isle that if it's not mccann's, it's from english sewers.

i like to put grade f maple syrup on mine, or apples and cinnamon.


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## Kayelle (Oct 20, 2014)

I get mine from Trader Joe's...."Quick Cook Steel cut Oats". It cooks in 8 minutes, and I can't tell any difference from the long cooking McCann's. 

I use maple extract, brown sugar, golden raisins, and a pat of butter and milk on the top.

Steve doesn't want milk on the top.....is that "normal"?


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## buckytom (Oct 20, 2014)

i'm with steve. never had milk on top. gonna have to try that. thanks k-l.


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## Steve Kroll (Oct 20, 2014)

I second the choice of McCann's and, yes, you can absolutely make up a large batch and keep the leftovers in the fridge (although you may have to thin it out a little with water or milk when reheating).


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## Rocklobster (Oct 20, 2014)

I eat steel cut and cook them in a little 6 pan. I usually add some rasins, or a few chopped, dried prunes..mixed with a little bit of milk and topped with brown sugar....never thought of doing a big batch.


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## tinlizzie (Oct 20, 2014)

Look what you can do with the McCann's can and a permanent marker.  I gave my son the tin full of cookies and this is what he returned.

Some catmeal for a dog's breakfast.


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## Chief Longwind Of The North (Oct 20, 2014)

Steel cut oats can also be put into soups in place of rice or barley.  It's very good.  Just make sure you don't put too much in, or you'll have soup flavored oatmeal.  It taste's good, but if I want oatmeal, then it's for breakfast, and not savory.

Flavors that work with steel cut oats are as follows, and not all inclusive:

Freshly sliced strawberries, blue berries, craisins, raisins, golden raisins, honey, brown sugar, maple syrup, molasses, cinnamon, peach slices or cubes, apple, nutmeg, vanilla, and others.

For a treat, add brown sugar and vanilla, with a bit of salt to make butterscotch flavored oats.

Most fruit preserves, jams, and jellies work with the steel cut oats too.

Cocoa with sweetener, and a bit of milk is good too.  I could go on.  Instead, I'm going home.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the north


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## Kayelle (Oct 20, 2014)

tinlizzie said:


> Look what you can do with the McCann's can and a permanent marker.  I gave my son the tin full of cookies and this is what he returned.
> 
> Some catmeal for a dog's breakfast.



Now that's cute Lizzie!!


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## Janet H (Oct 20, 2014)

I love steel cut oats.  I usually soak them overnight before cooking.  Speeds up the process so they will cook in about ten minutes.


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## Aunt Bea (Oct 21, 2014)

Kayelle said:


> I get mine from Trader Joe's...."Quick Cook Steel cut Oats". It cooks in 8 minutes, and I can't tell any difference from the long cooking McCann's.
> 
> I use maple extract, brown sugar, golden raisins, and a pat of butter and milk on the top.
> 
> Steve doesn't want milk on the top.....is that "normal"?



We always had a splash of milk on the oatmeal to cool the edges enough so we could eat it without scorching our gizzards! 

Now that it is soup season I want to try making oatmeal soup.  I have seen Scottish, Mexican and Colombian soup recipes that use oatmeal as the starch in a tomato or milk based vegetable soup.


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## inchrisin (Oct 21, 2014)

buckytom said:


> i'm with steve. never had milk on top. gonna have to try that. thanks k-l.



You've got to cook them in milk.  Otherwise, you're just making paste.


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## inchrisin (Oct 21, 2014)

Chief Longwind Of The North said:


> For a treat, add brown sugar and vanilla, with a bit of salt to make butterscotch flavored oats.
> 
> 
> Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the north



Cut to the chase.  I'm putting butterscotch on my oatmeal.  Immediately!   Excellent idea.


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## Kayelle (Oct 21, 2014)

Chief Longwind Of The North said:


> For a treat, add brown sugar and vanilla, with a bit of salt to make butterscotch flavored oats.



Don't forget the butter!!


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## Sir_Loin_of_Beef (Oct 21, 2014)

My Krups rice cooker has an oatmeal setting, and the manual has a recipe for apple spice oatmeal with almond milk. I just load everything into the rice cooker, set the timer for 30 minutes, and go take my shower. By the time I'm showered, shaved and dressed, the oatmeal is ready, and the cooker will keep it warm pretty much indefinitely.

I usually use McCanns but my regular groshree store didn't have itso I ended up with a carton of Flahavan's. It's all good.


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## Zhizara (Oct 22, 2014)

My Mom always used apple juice as the liquid for cooking oatmeal.  Very good!


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## Aunt Bea (Oct 22, 2014)

Zhizara said:


> My Mom always used apple juice as the liquid for cooking oatmeal.  Very good!



That sounds perfect for this time of year!

Now you've got me thinking, apple cider, chopped apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, a few chopped walnuts, a drizzle of maple syrup and maybe a small scoop of vanilla ice cream instead of milk!  Oh my!


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## Andy M. (Oct 22, 2014)

I typically flavor oatmeal with maple syrup, apricot or strawberry jams or frozen blueberries and sugar.


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## GA Home Cook (Oct 23, 2014)

aTK had a segment on this and works great.  Measure the oats and water and place in a pan.  Bring to a boil, cover and let sit overnight.  Next morning adjust the water and reheat to a boil.  Tastes great.


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## inchrisin (Oct 28, 2014)

Ok, I tried the overnight soak to get a head start on the oats.  Half an hour later I come back to my 6qt saucepan to find that a layer of oats has glued to the bottom of the pan.  I used a steel turner to get this off, (not burned), and added a little butter.  I walked away for another 5 minutes.  The same thing happened.  The oats really want to dive for the bottom.  Is there a way to prevent this, other than stirring?  

I made sure that there was plenty of water in the pan.  usually a 1/4" above the level of the oats.  

Thoughts?


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## Aunt Bea (Oct 28, 2014)

How about the crock pot method.

Overnight Oatmeal Recipe : Alton Brown : Food Network


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## inchrisin (Nov 3, 2014)

So, half a pound of steel cut oats made breakfast for me for about 4 days. I had to scrape the bottom of the pan to get them out, but they came off the bottom easily when they were cold.  The oats kept their flavor quite well and had a huge grain flavor to them, that I wouldn't expect to ever get from a flaked oat.  

The steel cut oats were a little extra work every day.  When cold, they had the consistency of a dough.  I added a generous splash of milk and they went into the microwave for 90 seconds.  I had to chop the oats into the milk to get the consistency that I wanted.  They were still pretty tasty and ALMOST worth the extra effort.

I can see waking up to a crockpot full of these guys happening once a month--especially with the cold weather coming.  I'll definitely try to add milk instead of water to cook the oats originally.  I could also see myself using applesauce instead of milk to thin these out into something really tasty.  

Cheers to all who've helped get me on track here.


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