Skip to main content
Breakfast

Oatmeal Porridge

A simple porridge made by steeping oatmeal in water and simmering slowly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Oatmeal Porridge

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Steep the oatmeal in water for 30 minutes.

  2. Add salt and place in the inner vessel of a double saucepan surrounded by boiling water.

Cook

  1. Boil gently for 1.5 hours or longer, stirring frequently to prevent lumps.

  2. If using coarse oatmeal, cook for at least 3 hours.

  3. For thicker porridge, increase the amount of oatmeal.

  4. Optionally, cook overnight and reheat before serving.

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

Fine oatmeal
Forms the body of the porridge as its starch swells and thickens in the water.
Water
Hydrates the oats and carries the heat that gelatinises their starch into a thick texture.

The step that matters

Stirring frequently during the long gentle boil. Oat starch can clump as it first hydrates, forming lumps that stay even after cooking. Frequent stirring keeps the oats dispersed so the starch thickens evenly.

“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.

More oatmeal porridge recipes

Scottish 4Cheese 3Scotch 3 See all 277 →

You might also like

Rice GruelRice Gruel28 recipesPeptoned Milk GruelPeptoned Milk Gruel9 recipes