Steamed oats

[bunsen_h]

Experiment: large-flake oats cooked by steam alone in a pressure cooker for about 25 minutes + cool-down time.

Result: the oats were dry, slightly darker than before, not much moisture seemed to have been absorbed.  When the oats were subsequently cooked with water as usual, they absorbed less water than usual and "fluffed up" noticeably.  Apparently the structure of the flakes was "loosened" by the steam, and/or more moisture had been absorbed than was apparent. This is more or less what the "modified" means in phrases such as "modified starch".

Conclusion: this does not appear to be a very useful way of cooking rolled oats.

Oh well, not all experiments are "successful", and my curiosity has been relieved.
 

Comments

[resonant.livejournal.com]

What about taste and effect on your digestive tract?

[bunsen-h.livejournal.com]

Taste: they were perhaps slightly more "well done" than usual, but there wasn't much difference.

Digestion: I didn't notice any difference, but my digestive tract is not in good shape at present thanks to a variety of medications. Hypothetically, with the oat structure more "opened", absorption of protein from it might be slightly better. (That guess is based on stuff I've read about how protein absorption from cereals improves when they're cooked for a long time: "pease porridge in the pot, nine days old" was probably outside the scope of that work, but I couldn't swear to it.) But that would take some careful analytical work beyond the reach of home research.