Name: Steamed Oatmeal
Ingredients: 1 teacup oatmeal; 1 quart cold water; 1 teaspoon salt

Steamed Oatmeal

Ingredients

1 teacup oatmeal
1 quart cold water
1 teaspoon salt

Directions

Prepare

Combine oatmeal, cold water, and salt in a bowl.

Steam

Place the mixture in a steamer over a kettle of cold water.
Gradually heat and steam for 1.5 hours after it begins to cook.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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 bulk of the dish, and its starch swells and thickens as it absorbs water and steams.
Cold water: Hydrates the oats so they soften and cook into a moist, spoonable porridge.

“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.