What If You Cooked Oatmeal in a Rice Cooker?
Oatmeal lovers, I have good news for you. If you were thrilled to have nighttime rolled oats added to your cereal repertoire, you may not be able to contain yourself when you find out there is another way to make them. Because it turns out that, under the right conditions, oatmeal can also be cooked in a rice cooker. Provided that it is fashionable and you have free time.
Who is the rice cooker oatmeal method suitable for?
This cooking method is a great solution for those who multitask and people with busy morning schedules, and it’s especially good if you want to feed a group of three to six people without risking the oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh.” moment. Keep in mind, this works best with a more advanced rice cooker that has a few settings (we’ll talk about that later). Oatmeal and I have a recurring relationship, so I never cook more than one serving, and just stirring it occasionally while I wait doesn’t get in the way of my schedule. Cooking oatmeal in a rice cooker can be pretty much hands-off, and like a slow cooker, it’s perfectly safe to walk away from it while the stove does its thing. Not only is it easy, but it allows you to fully immerse yourself in other tasks while you wait.
How to cook oatmeal in a rice cooker?
I have a small rice cooker that cooks about four cups of cooked rice. Oats act similarly to rice in that they constantly absorb water until they burst and fall apart. In this case, plan for enough space for the oats as usual, and be just as accurate in measuring the ratio of liquid to oats. I used Bob’s Red Mill Oatmeal (Amyrit for Golden Spurtle fans?) and followed the cooking ratios on the back of the package. One cup of oats to two and a half cups of water worked well for me, although you can cut the amount of liquid down to half a cup if you prefer a thicker cereal.
Works but has a downside
The resulting oatmeal was as perfect as can be – tender and hot, with a pliable yet thick texture. However, I ran into a couple of snags along the way. As I mentioned earlier, I have a small rice cooker. It’s old. Also it is very simple. (Ok, my mom bought it for me when I was in college and it still works, so why would I buy one of those cool ones with all the different settings?)
My rice cooker offers a choice between on and warm, and until I added oatmeal to it, those were all the settings I needed. Naturally, I turned it on and left. 20 minutes later I was looking through my spice cabinet when I heard a distinct hissing and gurgling sound. Turns out my rice cooker was spewing starchy oat juice. If you’ve ever boiled potatoes, pasta, or other high starchy foods and accidentally covered them for too long, then you know what it looked like: bubbles from boiling water turn into bubbles of starch that build up on top of each other and eventually push yourself out of the pot. You should cook it uncovered or half-covered to avoid this, but this is not really an option for a rice cooker as it relies on steam to ensure even cooking. This makes the rice cooker option only work best for those with more settings than “on” and “heat”.
If you have a rice cooker with only two settings, you have two options. You can simmer it on high heat (which is “on” for me) for 10-20 minutes, keeping a close eye on it, and then reduce heat to “warm” (to avoid oatmeal volcano) for another 50 minutes. , stirring occasionally. Another option is to set it to “warm” from the start and wait for a significant portion of your life to pass before you can enjoy your oatmeal. Unfortunately, this restriction has turned the laissez-faire process into just making oatmeal with extra oatmeal scrubbing.
Another downside is time. This method of cooking oatmeal is not as fast as in a pot on the stove; Depending on the type of appliance you are working with, cooking on a low level can take over an hour. Ultimately, I think this method is best for making overnight oatmeal, the most authentic oatmeal you can make and forget. While I won’t refill my regular rice cooker with grits under certain circumstances, I can see why this might be of interest to some oatmeal lovers.