Oatmeal: How Do You Make Yours?

[O'Callaghan]

Firstly, it's called porridge, not oatmeal.

I use instant and cook it in the microwave, but I make it with water and salt, and then add milk and sugar after it's done. That's the right way to do it, albeit the proper way is on top of the stove, really.

Actually, I use something called No Salt, which is just Potassium Chloride (KCl) instead of Sodium Chloride (NaCl), because my blood pressure won't permit me to use real salt. I don't necessarily always use real sugar either.

Tastes just the same as it should, provided the sugar is real sucrose. I've never found an artificial sweetener that tasted right, and I don't think there is one. Folks who think there is are just acclimatised to it.

[Bugbear]

I put red chili salsa in my oatmeal, O'Callaghan, I don't have to call it "porridge."

That being said, this evening I ate the last slice of a fruitcake I bought a while back. I've been eating it one slice a day.

I'm just wondering if there is some kind of oat equivalent to fruitcake?

[B R Gordon]

We put green chili or red chili salsa on a lot foods, but I think that I'll stay with brown sugar and raisins on my porridge.

[SteveB]

Please porridge hot
Please porridge Cold
Always best made
With Oats that are rolled.

Hot at breakfast with a cup of tea, and cold at afternoon break with tea.

Oatcakes on the AGA were always the best. Never have duplicated it here in the states.

Slainte

[Old Hippie]

I'm just wondering if there is some kind of oat equivalent to fruitcake?

Yes.

That would be a fruitcake made with oatmeal. I used to make one, with whole wheat and rolled oats and dried fruit.

The more important question, considering what's usually in fruitcake, is why. Well, some people I knew couldn't take their sin straight. They had to have the gloss of respectability over it, which I've never needed.

But somewhere I still have the recipe in my collection of fruitcake recipes. I oughta pull it out again for this year, now that I'm well into the usual three to six different kinds of fruitcake I make every year...

In re: "oats porridge" -- I have been known to throw a handful of chopped mixed dried fruits (apricots, dates, plums, raisins, cranberries, orange peel, apples, etc.) in the pot while simmering the oats. Don't need extra sweetener, and it'll "put yer clock back on regular time." But it's still wet grain.

:ootd:

[Tobus]

That being said, this evening I ate the last slice of a fruitcake I bought a while back. I've been eating it one slice a day.

I'm just wondering if there is some kind of oat equivalent to fruitcake?

This isn't exactly the same as a fruitcake, but this weekend I'm going to be making (or at least trying to make) a clootie dumpling. There are various recipes out there, but the one I'm using is from a Scottish cookbook and includes rolled oats, as well as the usual currants and raisins and spices and such. I would think that it could be easily adapted to include nuts, dates, or anything else you might find in a fruitcake.

Another contender would be adapting a black bun recipe to include oats.

[Lallans]

I put red chili salsa in my oatmeal, O'Callaghan, I don't have to call it "porridge."

That being said, this evening I ate the last slice of a fruitcake I bought a while back. I've been eating it one slice a day.

I'm just wondering if there is some kind of oat equivalent to fruitcake?

"Porridge"- a generic term where I grew up and included but was not specific to oatmeal. "Pease porridge," the cold version of which the Man in the Moon burned his mouth on, is for instance made from dried peas.

Last year someone gave me a fruitcake their aunt had made in circa 1992 and I ate it with gusto. It had been kept in a cool place and was just as good, probably better, than the year it was made and clearly had been made with love. After getting my report, the donor person then served a 1993 fruitcake to guests and they found that one unusually delicious as well. I've never understood the anti-fruitcake prejudice as seen on TV and occasionally in real life. It is tasty and nutritious and originally was a way to use items that had to be preserved in the old fashioned way- with sugar. Never had an oat-based fruitcake but would almost certainly enjoy one.

[Tobus]

I've never understood the anti-fruitcake prejudice as seen on TV and occasionally in real life.

At the risk of getting off-subject, I agree with you there. A good fruitcake is a thing of wonder. I love them. And I find that most people who have been conditioned to think of fruitcakes as some sort of joke or horrible substance usually like them too, once they give it a chance.

I think it all started when commercial producers took a good thing and tried to make it cheap, using some pretty awful ingredients like neon candied fruits (or fruit-like candy; I can't even say that most of these are actually fruit). In short order, the majority of fruitcakes on the market were inedible and it became a joke. Sadly, the fruitcake tradition has not fully recovered.

But at least there are still some quality producers out there, and some good recipes still survive.

[piperdbh]

A good fruitcake is a thing of wonder. I love them. But at least there are still some quality producers out there, and some good recipes still survive.

Thank you. I didn't know you had tried my fruitcake.

I made one this past Sunday which is really good. Here's the recipe.

[skruse]

Bring water to a boil. Measure and place steel cut oats in cooking container. When water boils, measure and add to oats. Cook in microwave (may over flow, so monitor closely and stir from time to time). When finished, add fruit (blue berries, pineapple or other). Add soy milk just before sitting down to eat. Enjoy the texture, mouth feel and taste.