Porridge in microwave or stove? Settle an office argument

Anonymous

Hi all,

We're debating whether porridge is best cooked in the microwave or on a stove.

Help please

ta

heavymental

Hmm. Well, I've never tried it in the microwave, buts its just wrong isn't it. Get it on the stove and face the fact that you're gonna have to spend a while cleaning the stuff off the bottom. Unless you get a decent non-stick pan then you're laughing. Microwaving is rarely the answer to a cooking quandry. Its just not cricket is it.

yorkshireraw

speaking from a professional capacity, it's always better on the stove. Microwave is lazy (and messy!), which isn't in the spirit of the product. You need to put some work into it, as it gives you back the energy for work / sport etc.

markos1963

On the stove, and if you make it properly with water instead of milk it doesn't stick as much.

wakemalcolm

Stove every time:

http://www.relfe.com/microwave.html

pneumatic

stove

I used to do mine in the nuclear device, but, unless you were super accurate with quantities and timing, you just ended up with a lumpy volcanic eruption.

Tips on perfect porage:

1. use good meal not flakes
2. half milk, half water
3. ideally, make up the pot the night before and let it soak
4. stir constantly while you cook, and keep stirring after you have taken it off the heat
5. soak the pot in cold water. After a couple of hours, the residue just peels off the bottom very pleasingly. (remember to negotiate the couple of hours in advance with your housemates!)
6. note how much cleaner the pot is after porage than before (and try not to think about what else has therefore found its way into your breakfast!

I add a pinch of salt and two pinches of cinnamon prior to cooking and a spoonful of honey after cooking. Sometimes, a few sultanas, too. Frankly, I could live on the stuff.

MattHybrid

Readybrek. Just add warm milk and stir into the bowl!
Alternatively, just throw some chopped oats into the blender along with banana, some milk, water and a bit of protein shake. They don't have to be cooked, and you can get it down you much faster. Takes ages to scoff your way through a bowl of porridge!

kaacp

Stove, every time.

And Pneumatic's instructions are perfect, especially soaking the pot afterwards. It makes cleaning it a non-event.

I would also say to cook it over as low as heat as possible to get the texture absolutely right.

Then add maple syrup and pecan nuts. Mmmmmmmm!!

Eat My Dust

Use a frying pan, then it won't stick. I started doing this after watching an episode of The Sapranos when someone was making scrambled eggs in a frying pan. I though "why would you use that?" next time I made scrambled eggs I used the old frying pan and hey presto!! nothing stuck to the pan. I can't see any difference with porridge.

Big Red S

Stove is better, Microwave is easier.

Given that I only ever have it first thing in the morning, I only ever have it out of the microwave.

Making it with water is just plain wrong, though.

LangerDan

wakemalcolm wrote:

Stove every time:

http://www.relfe.com/microwave.html

Stephanie Relfe makes "Dr" Gillian McKeith look like the pinnacle of scientific logic. Among her other interests are vampires and ads for Goji berries that involve claims that they made someone live to 256 years.
http://www.metatech.org/real_vampire_interview.html

richk

Microwave, simply for speed & convenience.

Crapaud

RichK wrote:

Microwave, simply for speed & convenience.

Convenience?? It's a pity that I lost the pic of my microwave after the one and only time that I tried to cook porridge in it. The porridge actually went 'BANG' as it shot out of the bowl, covering the inside in porridgey artex. I'd rather clean a pot (tip below) than a micro.

Pneumatic's instructions are pretty accurate, except that it's vital to only stir the porridge clockwise or you'll summon satan, a demon or the pun**ure fairy, depending on how much you stir it anti-clockwise, and doom us all!

Cleaning tip: Place the pot back on the hot ring and let it dry out. The porridge will flake then you can simply pick it out.

kevinn123

On the stove

- soak the oats over night
- make with half water / half milk

- water only is horrible

Swannie

Microwave for convenience.

To be honest, I don't think I've ever used the hob to make it :-S

Most of my porridge is made at work.

My tips for success :

- Use a high sided bowl. One that is almost a hemi-sphere. The flatter ones are OK, but you have to watch for bubbling over more carefully.
- Quantities are important. I get a mug, half-ish fill, mark that level with my finger, and pour into the bowl. Then fill with water to just past my finger tip, in the bowl. Repeat. So my ratio is 1:2 and a bit. The bit does make a difference.
- Use rolled oats. None of this ready break. I was using "superfast oats" last month. Crap. You can't really taste oats.
- I chuck it in for 2 mins. Stir. Another 1min. Stir. Then usually 20-40 secs, until you can see it start to convect (really cool!). Watching carefully at this point to avoid explosions. I'm probably at about 0.5% explosions and 2% overflows.
- I cook until some of the oats have split. It comes out of the microwave still relatively liquidy.
- Leaving to stand, it firms up.
- Add dried fruit, or bananas, honey, cashews, etc.
- Occasionally I need to add a small amount of water.

I don't have a hob at work. It would mean cleaning a pan and a bowl. It would require stirring, and scrubbing of the pan.

EDIT: Ohh yes. Milk in porridge is WRONG. It tastes all lactosey.

If you are concerned about overflow, just stick the bowl in on top of a dinner plate. Any spillage can be scooped off and popped back in.


I do make my scrambled eggs in the microwave too. This is pure lazyness. The pan really does produce superior results for eggs.

Barrie_G

I'm another one who uses the microwave for simplicity :oops: it's just easier and quicker this way, but the stove is much better if you want to treat yourself.

chronyx

I am a huge porridge fan

Hob cooked everday. I have added and added to my brekkie so now it is:

Half milk half water
Fair lump of coconut oil
Plenty of cinnamon

Then after cooking

Sprinkle of nutmeg
Plenty of ginger
Big old blob of honey.

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

OffTheBackAdam

Microwave.
2-3 Minutes and it's done.
Scrambled eggs also are a doddle in the microwave!

shmo

Can't tell the difference between porridge microwaved and cooked on the stove. I'd rather nuke it and spend a few extra minutes in bed in the morning. Oats, milk, 3 minutes in the microwave, teaspoon of cocoa, teaspoon of honey, stir.

Squaggles

Weekends - Stove
Working days / At work - Microwave

shoei

Do my porridge in the microwave.
Big pyrex bowl, 1 tea cup of oats, 2 tea cups od milk.
Nuke for 2 & 1/2 mins. Stir, then nuke again for 2 mins. All done.

plug1n

Absolutely best is oat meal in slow cooker overnight

Back when men were men, it used to be inside a hay box overnight

Oat flakes are a poor excuse for the real thing, probably a Sassenach invention

ThatGuyOnABike

porridge in the microwave is just plain wrong, porridge should be given the respect it deserves, though i am more of a crunchy nut man myself.

guinea

You need pinhead oats. Soak in water over night with a little salt.

Boil the next day and stir until it thickens to the consistency you want.

Serve in a wide bottomed soup bowl and pour milk in gently at the side. The porridge will float up and you can spin it round if you get it right. Add some demerara brown sugar. Do not use muscavado or white sugar, it tastes wrong.

Eat from the edge. The milk keeps the temperature safe enough not to scald your mouth, but you'll really feel the warmth in you belly.

stevejmo7

mug of oats, mug of milk, 50 secs on 900 W, stir before the edges get too hard, 60 secs or until it is hardening up along the edge, stir in a tablespoon of honey, 53 miles - brill.

Gr.uB

Twice a day I use the microwave. I have even converted others to using the microwave to heat their porridge.

bobpzero

microwave - tho wait 2 minutes after u get it out and stir it loads. dont want to get burnt inards. i do like the quakers oats so simple, expensive but amazing flavours. still cant beat the original stuff - that if your not in "rush hour" mode

Crapaud

ISTR that microwaving any foodstuff destroys a proportion of the nutrition because it cooks it too fast (C+ article IIRC), so I did a search, but came up with diddlysquat. However I did find this little tidbit in The Telegraph:

"• And nothing is more on trend: 47 million gallons of porridge are eaten in the UK every winter and oat sales grew by 81 per cent between 2000 and 2005"

Gallons??? 47 million??? If I'd had to guess, I'd never have come up with a figure anywhere close to that.

An article in yesterday's Herald may explain why cyclists are so chilled and happy (well, mostly):

"Interestingly, serotonin is manufactured in the body by the essential amino acid tryptophan - which is only obtained through diet. This could explain why some of us become especially combative when we haven't eaten, because serotonin levels naturally drop after a period of fasting. The best thing to do is to eat tryptophan-rich foods such as

oats, bananas, dried dates, milk, salmon, sesame seeds, turkey, chicken, chocolate and cheese, all of which could help boost serotonin levels and calm us down. That's why they're sometimes called "feel-good" foods."Food for thought.

Tom Butcher

Like a lot of others I do it half water half semi skimmed on the hob - add a bit more liquid if it's too dry - don't cook it for that long and add honey and raisins.

MrT

I can sympathise with the microwave at work people but a stove everytime...even got the little'un into it now....she loves her porridge...but it has to be on the stove. Half and half does the trick..looking forward to trying the cinammon.

campagone

On the stove for me, half 'Rice Dream' and half soya milk, spoonfull of honey or fructose sugar and for the last couple of minutes I add good handful of frozen blueberries. I often also add sultanas&raisins.