The Different Types of Oats

Posted by Renee Shelton Nov 21, 2008

There are three basic types of oats available to the healthy cook for meal planning and recipe creating. Oats can be used as is for oatmeal, in meatloaf as a filler or binder or in fruit smoothies giving added thickness and a jolt of good fiber. Oats can also be ground up and used in place of some of the all purpose flour called for in recipes and baking.

Steel Cut

Often called 'Irish or Scotch Oats', these oats are cut rather than rolled. Rather than flat ovals, they look like chopped up rice pieces. Allow for longer cooking times when preparing them, and when made for breakfast steel-cut oats give a heartier, richer and more chewy texture than the regular instant oats usually used.

Old-Fashioned Oats

These are sometimes just called rolled oats and look like flat ovals. This kind of oatmeal has the kernals steamed first then rolled. These take longer to cook than instant or quick-cooking oatmeal but are much quicker than steel cut.

Quick Cooking Oatmeal

Also called instant, this type contains precooked oats that are dried and rolled, and cooking them is very easy, often times just very hot water. Instant oatmeal goes into shakes and smoothies well, and can be added to recipes for easy binding or fillers, like meatballs and meatloaf.