"ChrisW" wrote:
> 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?

Austrailia has not a whit to do with anything, yoose just talk funny
is all.

Purely semantics. Depends who you ask and in what setting. If you
ask a butcher for beef what do you think you'll receive.. a question
of course, "which cut?" If you ask for beef at the golden arches all
they can offer is ground beef pattys.. well, for the sake of this
discussion let's just assume it's beef. If you ask for oatmeal at
the stupidmarket they'll point you to the cereal aisle, where you can
pick, choose, and refuse. If you ask for oatmeal at the local greasy
spoon you'll get a bowlful of cooked (probably find a pubic hair in
it). If you ask for oatmeal south of Nashville they'll bring you
grits. But if you want a specific type of oats then you need to ask
for what type you want spcifically... so as anyone can plainly see
when someone wants a specific item it's entirely up to them to ask for
that specific item specifically. Perhaps if you educated yourself
about oats your dilemma will be resolved. Search <oats>.