Steel Cut Oats

Week: 14
Ingredient: Steel Cut Oats
From: Martin's, Harrisonburg, VA
Recipe: Oatmeal

I am not in to health food. At least, not in the I’m going to eat this food that doesn’t taste good because it provides such and such health benefit sense. That’s why I was a little skeptical of steel cut oats at first. My impression was that they were just another health food fad. However, several of my friends have told me how great steel cut oats are, so I figured it was time to give them a try. An oatmeal taste test, steel cut versus rolled oats, seemed appropriate.

I bought some steel cut oats, and to my surprise, the nutritional information was identical to the nutritional information for the rolled oats I already had at home. Health food? Ha! At least not any more than regular rolled oats (which really are quite good for you). Wikipedia did say that “steel-cut oats may have a lower glycemic index than instant oatmeal,” but I was comparing them to old fashioned oats, not instant, so I’m not sure if that still holds true or not.

I made both oatmeals according to package directions. The only notable difference in the cooking directions was that the steel cut oats needed 10-20 minutes to cook while the rolled oats needed only 5. (Do old fashioned oats really only take 5 minutes to cook? Or is it possible my oats were mislabeled and really were quick oats? Sometimes you can’t be sure when you buy the store brand ...)

Conclusion: It seems to me that the differences between steel cut oats and rolled oats are kind of like the differences between brown rice and white rice: nutrition, cooking time, flavor, and texture. Only, with the oats the variations are smaller than with brown and white rice. The one exception is the texture. While I didn’t note much difference in flavor between the steel cut and rolled oats, the difference in texture was significant. The rolled oats made oatmeal that was ... like oatmeal. (How else can I describe it?) The steel cut oatmeal had a little more bite to it; it could almost be called chewy. It kind of reminded me of buckwheat. Anyway, I liked it. I won’t be replacing all my rolled oats with steel cut oats, but they will find a place in my pantry. And, like brown and white rice, I will find uses for both kinds of oats at different times.