The Cooking of Oatmeal
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Use a large pot lined with agate or granite.
Bring 4 pints of water to a brisk boil.
Cook
Slowly stir in ½ pound of 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.
Adjust thickness based on preference.
Serve
Serve with milk if desired.
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
- Scotch or irish oatmeal
- Starch that swells in boiling water and thickens the porridge into a creamy mass.
- Water
- Cooks the oats by hydrating their starch, forming the porridge's base texture.
- Milk
- Adds richness and a softer, creamier mouthfeel when served on top.
The step that matters
Stir the oatmeal into a rapid boil. Oats added slowly and stirred well into boiling water disperse evenly and hydrate without clumping. Keeping the water at a brisk boil while stirring prevents lumps and scorching at the base, and the spoon-in-pot step helps keep the pot from burning.
“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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