"ChrisW" > wrote in message
...
> In Australia we don't use the term 'oatmeal'. In recipes from the US and
> Britain when it calls for this I can't work out from the photo what
> product has been used. In the recent thread on oats I thought I might be
> able to glean the info, but it didn't happen.
>
> We have rolled oats, which are like your Quaker traditional rolled oats,
> and we have steel cut oats. We can use both of these for porridge. There
> are also the quick sort of flavoured oat mixes that nuke in a minute. We
> have oat bran as well. So what is oatmeal? Is it another name for rolled
> oats, or is a more refined product?
>
> Chris


Here's my take. I've been eating oatmeal for as long as I can remember.

Rolled oats and oat flakes are the same. You see them mostly in the form
that you see the Qauaker traditional rolled oats that you speak about. This
is what here in the U.S. we call oatmeal. As in "I'm going to have some
oatmeal for breakfast."

This is in the form of an oatmeal that cooks in 5 minutes, (used to be we
had some flakes that even cooked 15 minutes) and then in the last few
decades, there is an 'instant' oatmeal that cooks in probably 1 minute.
I've tried it once or twice. It's really like a mush, not much taste.

If you cook these flakes only a short time as I do and not many do it this
way, the flakes stay intact. They are similar to a museli, only cooked or
basically hydrated for a short time.

Steel cut oats are probably the same all over.

Dee Dee