I have been enjoying long-cooking rolled oats for breakfast lately. Actually it’s a 4-grain mixture from the bulk bins at the food co-op.
I heard somewhere that long-cooking rolled oats are supposed to be soaked in water before cooking and that years ago the box used to have soaking in the instructions. Is this true? Do you soak your oatmeal overnight before you cook it?
Horrors! Steel cut only, cooked for thirty minutes, add other stuff as desired before serving.
Steel cut oats and other non-flattened grains do cook faster if soaked the night before. Everything else turns into glue. Mixing other grains into your oats really does improve the flavor.
I think presoaking detracts from the flavor and texture, it is allowed in competitive porridge championships, however, but what do they know? 
I dunno…I just use the Scottish porridge-oats kind. Cooks in 8-10 minutes. Fuss-free.
“Instant” and “quick” oats are both parboiled or steamed before being dried and then rolled. The real thing is steel-cut oats, which aren’t commonly found in north American grocery stores at all. Where you find them, they’re likely to be called ‘scottish’ or ‘irish’ oats and to be priced as a premium product.
They have them at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods, but it’s not standard-issue cereal aisle fare.
I use a small slow cooker to cook mine. I set a timer to turn on the cooker around 4AM and I pre-load 1/4 cup of steel cut oats and 1 cup of water in the cooker the night before. I have it set to turn off around 6. By the time I’m done with morning things, I have a nice bowl of porridge around 6:3I add a pinch of salt to it right before its eaten.
I get mine at Trader Joes (closer to home). The whole foods has it in bulk
What I read about soaking flattened oats was that it is actually healthier. That didn’t make sense to me. I can see soaking intact grains because then the sprouting process starts and that could cause a chemical reaction of sorts which might improve the nutrients or digestibility or whatever. But flattened oats are pretty well dead like roadkill.
I guess I should try the steel-cut oats. Never had them.
That was “Irish-style,” as I recall. I did not care for the texture, as a cooked cereal. Too fine a grain for me. I prefer a chunkier feel.
McCann’s is everywhere in the states and has been for many decades, what I didn’t know was they also make fast cooking oats, a waste I think. It’s a terrible thing to waste an oat. It’s not like they grow on trees. The Golden Spurtle for 2009 was claimed by an American and I don’t mean a Canadian.
We add just about anything that suits our fancy to oatmeal, hot chocolate, tea, maple syrup, golden syrup, brown sugar, butter, fruits, dried and fresh, including cranberries(dried), and a little orange juice with that is good too, ground nuts.
How else you going to take an oatmeal bath?
No. (I don’t soak 'em.)
Pinhead Oatmeal. That’s the stuff! Aha! Dat’s what youse Yanks call “Steel-cut, Irish Oats, Scots Oats, etc”. There you are, then.
Em’s reaction surprises me. In my experience pinhead oatmeal has a coarser texture than rolled oats (the usual kind).
Henderson’s Salad Table used to serve (maybe they still do) a fine version of Bircher Muesli. This isn’t the nasty, gritty stuff which pretends to be a breakfast cereal, but a sort of delightful sweet mush of stuff, primarily oats. They (the Salad Table) soak theirs overnight. I’ve never tasted another like it. Yum!
But here’s a recipe, of sorts. http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipe/17135/swiss-bircher-muesli.html
I like McCann’s steel cut (though not sure I have many steel cut alternatives out here in the L.A. oatmeal sticks). I’ve got to explore some better ones in the UK next summer–any particular brands to look for? Meanwhile, I did try the McCann’s “quick cooking” steel cut, and they weren’t bad, at least relative to the regular steel-cut oatmeal. Almost identical actually, much to my surprise. And they cook alot faster. Not that a half hour is too long to wait for a good cup of porridge! Because I often have little time in the morning (gotta pay for those whistles somehow), I soak some muesli overnight (previously in milk, but lately in almond milk–doctor’s orders and actually quite tasty). When you don’t cook the grains, such as the muesli, it’s far better soaked than not. Even soaking for a half-hour while showering if I forget to do it the night before is better than unsoaked, imho. When I have time, I add some of the muesli to the oatmeal and cook the whole thing, which can also be pretty tasty.
Best,
Jaydoc
By cracky, it is at Publix Markets! Several kinds, too. 
I’m afraid to think what would happen should I ever move out of their range.
And, no, I’d never soak before cooking! Gack! It nastifies them, if you ask me. Unnatural!
I like to place rolled oats, or more commonly now, buckwheat groats mixed with some flax or chia seed and an equal volume of water to dry ingredients in a bowl in my pressure cooker set up as a pressurized double boiler. I bring it up to full pressure on high, set it to warm and go take my shower. It is ready by the time I am dressed. I like my pressure cooker. I find it is like having a high speed slow cooker.
it is allowed in competitive porridge championships,
You gotta be kidding. Man, some people will compete in ANYTHING!