The Cooking of Oatmeal
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Use a large pot lined with agate or granite.
Cook the porridge
Bring the water to a brisk boil.
Slowly stir in the oatmeal using a wooden spoon.
Avoid boiling over to keep the creamy part.
Stir gently until the porridge thickens.
Reduce heat and cook until done, stirring occasionally.
Leave the spoon in the pot to prevent burning.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Oatmeal
- Forms the body of the porridge as its starch thickens during cooking.
- Water
- Hydrates the oats so they swell and cook into a soft porridge.
The step that matters
Stirring the oatmeal into boiling water. Adding oats slowly while stirring keeps them from clumping into lumps. Boiling over would lose the creamy part, so the heat must stay controlled as the porridge thickens.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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