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Steamed Oatmeal
Mix 1/2 pint of coarse oatmeal with 1 teaspoonful of salt and 1 quart of boiling water. Place the dish directly over the fire and boil rapidly for five to eight minutes, stirring occasionally with a fork. Place the dish in a steamer and steam for one hour; if the meal is very coarse a little longer time may be required.
This is steel-cut oatmeal by the double-boiler method: a short hard boil to hydrate the grain, then an hour of gentle steam so it cannot scorch. The proportions are sound and translate directly.
- The measurementsHalf a pint of oatmeal is 1 cup; a quart of water is 4 cups. That 1:4 ratio is still standard for coarse oatmeal and produces a thick, spoonable porridge rather than a loose one.
- "Coarse oatmeal" means steel-cutNot rolled oats. Use steel-cut (Irish or pinhead) oats; rolled oats in this recipe would collapse to paste well before the hour is up, and instant oats would be ruined in minutes.
- The steamer is a double boilerThe steamer -- "Place the dish in a steamer" most likely means the pan of porridge set over simmering water rather than in a perforated basket, though the text does not specify. Either way, a double boiler or a heatproof bowl set in a pan of water does the job: the oats stay below boiling and cannot catch on the bottom.
- Why the hour mattersSteel-cut oats need long slow hydration to lose their raw chalkiness. The initial five to eight minutes of hard boiling is what starts the starch swelling; skipping straight to the steam leaves the centres gritty.
- Stir with a fork, and sparinglyAs written. A fork separates the grains where a spoon smears them, and over-stirring steel-cut oats releases starch and turns the porridge gluey. Once it is in the steamer it needs almost no attention.
- SaltA full teaspoon for a quart is a firm hand by modern habit but correct for porridge, which tastes flat without it. Add it at the start as written.
- Yield and timingAbout 4 cups cooked, serving four. The hour is unattended, so this suits an overnight or make-ahead approach: it reheats well with a splash of milk or water, and thickens considerably as it cools.
Long-cooked oatmeal over water rather than direct heat was common in turn-of-the-century cookery, and it appears frequently in books of low-cost recipes: oats were among the cheapest sources of bulk and protein available, and the double-boiler method let a cook set the pan going and attend to other work without risking a scorched pot. The distinction between "coarse" and finer meal was a real one at the time, when oats were sold cut to various grades as well as in branded packages, and cooking times were given as ranges because the cook was expected to judge her own grain. Slow-cooked cereal breakfasts were also promoted by the domestic science movement of the period, which held up hot porridge as a sensible, digestible start to the day.