Oatmeal

Nutrition

Unenriched oatmeal, cooked by boiling or microwave, is 84% water, and contains 12% carbohydrates, including 2% dietary fiber, and 2% each of protein and fat (table). In a 100 gram amount, cooked oatmeal provides 71 Calories and contains 29% of the Daily Value (DV) for manganese and moderate content of phosphorus and zinc (11% DV each), with no other micronutrients in significant content (see table on right).

Health benefits

Oatmeal cooked with water to create a runny bowl of porridge

Oatmeal and other oat products were the subject of a 1997 ruling by the Food and Drug Administration that consuming oat bran or whole rolled oats can lower the risk of heart disease when combined with a low-fat diet via the effect of oat beta-glucan to reduce levels of blood cholesterol.^[6] A similar conclusion was reached in 2010 by the European Food Safety Authority.^[7]

Scotland

Oatmeal has a long history in Scottish culinary tradition because oats are better suited than wheat to the country's low temperatures and high humidity.^[8] As a result, oats became the staple grain of Scotland. The ancient universities of Scotland had a holiday called Meal Monday to permit students to return to their farms and collect more oats for food.

Samuel Johnson referred, disparagingly, to this in his dictionary definition for oats: "A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people." His biographer, James Boswell, noted that Lord Elibank was said by Sir Walter Scott to have retorted, "Yes, and where else will you see such horses and such men?"^[9]

A common method of cooking oatmeal in Scotland is to soak it overnight in salted water and cook on a low heat in the morning for a few minutes until the mixture thickens.

In Scotland, oatmeal is created by grinding oats into a coarse powder.^[10] It may be ground fine, medium, or coarse, or rolled, or the groats may be chopped in two or three pieces to make what is described as pinhead oatmeal.^[11] Ground oatmeal, rolled oats, and pinhead oatmeal, are all used (throughout Britain); one Scots manufacturer describes varieties as "Scottish Porridge Oats" (rolled), "Scottish Oatmeal" (medium ground), and "Pinhead Oatmeal".^[12] The main uses are:

• Traditional porridge
• Brose: a thick mixture made with uncooked oatmeal (or medium oatmeal that has been dry toasted by stirring it around in a dry pot over heat until it turns a slightly darker shade and emits a sweet, nutty fragrance) and then adding butter or cream. Brose is eaten like porridge but is much more filling.
• Quick-cooking rolled oats (distinct from "instant" variations) are often used for this purpose nowadays, because they are quicker to prepare.^[11]
• Gruel, made by mixing oatmeal with cold water that is strained and heated for the benefit of infants and people recovering from illness.
• as an ingredient in baking

Oatmeal is a prime ingredient of haggis, seen here at a Burns supper

• in the manufacture of bannocks or oatcakes
• as a stuffing for poultry
• as a coating for Caboc cheese
• as the main ingredient of the Scottish dish skirlie, or its chip-shop counterpart, the deep-fried thickly-battered mealy pudding
• mixed with sheep's blood, salt, and pepper to make Highland black pudding (marag dubh).
• mixed with fat, water, onions and seasoning, and boiled in a sheep's intestine to make marag geal, Outer Hebridean white pudding, served sliced with fried eggs at breakfast. A sweeter version with dried fruit is also known.
• as a major component of haggis.
• in sowans, not strictly made from the meal but as a porridge-like dish made from the fermented inner husks of oats^[13][14]

Staffordshire

Staffordshire oatcakes are a local component of the full English breakfast. It is a plate-sized pancake, made with equal parts medium oatmeal and wheatmeal (flour), along with frothing yeast. Once the mixture has risen to produce something like a Yorkshire pudding batter, it is ladled onto a griddle or bakestone, and dried through. Staffordshire oatcakes are commonly paired with bacon, sausages, mushrooms, kidney, and baked beans, among others.^[15] A related oatcake is sometimes found in neighbouring Derbyshire.

Nordic countries and the Baltics

Throughout the Nordic and Baltic regions, oatmeal porridge made from rolled oats and water or milk is a traditional breakfast staple. Known under various local names meaning "oat porridge", "oat flake porridge" or "oatmeal porridge", it is normally made either salty or sweet by adding salt or sugar, and it is often eaten with added raisins or other dried fruits. Local names for the porridge include Swedish havregrynsgröt, Danish havregrød, Norwegian havregraut or havregrøt, Icelandic hafragrautur, Finnish kaurapuuro, Estonian kaerahelbepuder, Latvian auzu pārslu (putra), Lithuanian avižinių dribsnių košė and Polish owsianka.

Oatmeal porridge has a long tradition in these regions, but during the Middle Ages porridge made from rye or barley was even more common in at least some parts of the area.^[16]