Oats breakfast cereals

The chief food use of oats is as a breakfast cereal. Hot cereals are made from oat groats, which may be “pan-toasted” and which are either flake or “steel-cut" to reduce the size and decrease the cooking time.

Oats groats as collected from the field do not have much flavor; what little flavor they do posses is not particularly appealing. Desirable flavor are developed by the wet and dry heating steps applied during processing.

Breakfast cereals are diverse in nature but may broadly be classified as uncooked and ready to eat. Uncooked breakfast cereals are typified by porridge, which traditionally is made from oatmeal or rolled oats.

Coarse oatmeal is not cooked during manufacture unless heated to inactivate lipases and requires considerable cooking. Rolled oats are partially cooked during manufacturing and require less domestic cooking.

Steel cut oats, which are also called Scotch oats or Irish oatmeal, are chewier, have more texture and are slower to cook.
Oats breakfast cereals