oatmeal?

mandy_moo_1

i fancy having a go at making parkin......it's like a chewy gingerbread i think, but it says in the recipe i need oatmeal.

this isn't the same as porridge oats is it? i looked in morrisons but i couldn't see any, so any ideas where i might be able to get some?

thanx

JenniO

Bless you hun......yes the american word for 'porridge oats' is indeed 'oatmeal'.....when baking I do buy the 'value' porridge oats as it tastes no different

trying-very-trying

As I understand it, porridge oats are just rolled oatmeal. The main difference is just the size of the flake, but oaymeal does take longer to cook than the porridge oats.

kittyscarlett

To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, oats are oats are oats... though to also paraphrase George Orwell, not all oats were created equal... there are different types of size and coarseness... all I can definitely say is that all of them would be equally delicious in flapjack or parkin - although for the latter there are some regional varieties using fine/pinhead/larger oats etc but nothing ventured nothing gained... ! go on, go for it !

alexan

My Mum buys oatmeal at Morrisons.It is so fine in texture that you could almost pass it through a sieve.
She lives in the north east of England so perhaps they only stock it in certain stores.

thriftlady_2

Oatmeal is not the same as porridge oats -it may be in America but it isn't here.

A 'meal' in this sense is like a flour but not so finely ground. Oatmeal comes in several grades; fine, medium, coarse and pinhead. You can usually find it either in the cereal aisle or the baking aisle in a supermarket. Health food shops are a good place to get too.

I use the medium oatmeal for coating herring or mackerel prior to frying.

I am sure your recipe for parkin will not suffer from having porridge oats in it , but to be authentic you should have oatmeal

Justamum

Oatmeal is quite expensive. Recently when I made some homemade digestive biscuits the recipe needed oatmeal which I didn't have, so I used the same weight of porridge oats and whizzed them in the processor.

culpepper

yes I've done that too.We have a little electric coffee grinder which is handy to grind the oats up into almost powder. Handy to make digestives with too or instant oat breakfast. I haven't tried a manual coffee grinder but I suppose that might work too.

mandy_moo_1

Justamum wrote: »

Oatmeal is quite expensive. Recently when I made some homemade digestive biscuits the recipe needed oatmeal which I didn't have, so I used the same weight of porridge oats and whizzed them in the processor.

oh thanx, thats a brilliant idea. i've got loadsa porridge oats so i'll give that a go :beer:

thriftmonster

Health food shops are good for oatmeal - although our Tesco has just started stocking it. I use it for Delia's oatcakes - great with cheese.

Quasar

I use organic oatmeal to make my own porridge - not in the traditional way perhaps, but it works well for me.

I just cook it in semi-skimmed milk, add a teaspoon of blackstrap molasses, and it's quickly done. Full of vitamins and minerals, especially iron and calcium, it makes for a great winter-warmer.