Oat Porridge
Porridge (also known in American English as hot cereal), is a simple dish made by boiling grain (often rolled oats) in water or milk. Porridge made from Irish oats, also called steel-cut oats, takes longer to cook—typically 15–20 minutes.
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 58 min
- Total
- 1 hr 23 min
- Servings
- As written in source
- Difficulty
- Medium
Timings are approximate — worked out from the method, not measured in a test kitchen.
Ingredients
Quantities are retained as written by the source and do not scale automatically. Tap an ingredient to check it off as you go.
Cooking instructions
Procedure
Mix oats and water, then bring to the boil, covered with a lid.
Procedure
Once bubbling, stir and reduce temperature to the lowest possible to maintain simmering. Replace lid and watch carefully to prevent boiling over.
Procedure
Stir every minute or so. After five minutes, remove lid, stir thoroughly and add milk.
Procedure
Mix through, and keep stirring until fully mixed.
Procedure
Serve and add raisins, sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, a pinch of salt, honey or inverted sugar syrup to taste.
Notes, tips, and variations
Soak whole grains over night and change water. Soaking softens the grains and reduces cooking time, although whole oats still require 45–60 minutes simmering. Rinsing also reduces starch and pesticide residue. Steel cut oats should simmer for 20–30 minutes, or to the desired texture. Let the water boil out for a chewier, rice-like flavor with whole oats or leave some water in as is common with rolled oats and instant oats.
Notes, tips, and variations
Porridge can be made using water, milk, or a mixing of the two depending on taste. Other ingredients may include butter, dates, bananas, apples, and cinnamon. Add apples and cinnamon during the cooking process to infuse the flavor. If you want to avoid milk products, it is also possible to use soy milk instead of cow's milk. Corn oil also works well with honey and figs, out of the vegetable oils. Honey itself combines well with apples and cinnamon while raisins, dates, and bananas are popular with dairy ingredients. Winter squash can be added to finer grains like wheat and millet.
Notes, tips, and variations
3 tbsp (90 ml) of milk powder or non-dairy milk powder can replace liquid milk by increasing water to 1½ cups (360 ml)
Notes, tips, and variations
Porridge was traditionally cooked over a wooden fire and in a cast iron pot which prevents burning and doesn't interfere with the flavor. In modern times, any pot will do as long as it is thick enough to distribute the heat.
Notes, tips, and variations
Instant oats are the easiest and fastest to cook as they only need boiling water and as this may be also done with a microwave oven.
Photo: No machine-readable author provided. CryptoDerk~commonswiki assum · CC BY-SA 3.0 · http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ · Photo source and licence
Wikibooks contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · Adapted; quantities retained as written. · Original source
Read it through first
Skim all 10 steps before you start — it is the difference between cooking and firefighting.
Scale it
Use the quantities listed in the original recipe. Adjust them manually if making a different batch size.
Storage
Cool completely, then keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days.
Reheating
Reheat gently with a splash of water in a covered pan, rather than blasting it, so nothing dries out.
Nutrition information is not available for this recipe yet.
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