Rolled Oats Versus Old-Fashioned Oats - Southern Living

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The popularity of whole grains is a well-established fact in modern diets. As a result, ingredients that once were viewed as dull or uninspiring now find themselves thrust into prominence on menus and social media feeds. Case in point: the humble oat. 

Oats come in numerous sizes, textures, and styles, and switching in one type of oat for another won’t necessarily yield positive results. “As a whole grain, oats come in a variety of textures that can cater to a consumer’s needs and preferences. All oat varieties stem from the Poaceae grass family of plants and can be easily distinguished by their level of processing. Varieties that are the least processed typically take a longer time to prepare, a longer time to chew, and a longer time to digest in the gastrointestinal tract,” explains Emma Laing, PhD, RDN, director of dietetics at the University of Georgia.

If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between steel-cut oats, rolled oats, and quick-cooking oats– plus, when each oat type should be used, we’re breaking it all down right here. 

• Emma Laing, PhD, RDN, director of dietetics at the University of Georgia and national spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Steel-Cut Oats

• Least-processed: Steel-cut oats are among the least-processed oats on the market. When it comes to the most all-natural oats available, Laing says that oat groats are the way to go. “Oat groats are the least processed. Groats are simply whole oat kernels with the outer husks removed, leaving the fully intact germ, endosperm, and bran.” Cooked groats feature a chewy texture that some enjoy, but Laing warns that “they take the longest time to prepare before they are ready to eat.” 
• Ease: Another highly-textured and minimally-processed oat that’s a bit easier to work with in the kitchen is the steel-cut oat. “Steel-cut oats are aptly named for the steel blade that is used to chop or slice whole oat groats into smaller pieces. Because they are smaller in size than oat groats, they can be prepared faster,” Laing says. 
• Texture: Lizbeth Ramirez, executive pastry chef at Crown Block in Dallas, Texas, tells us that steel-cut oats “tend to have a coarser texture than rolled or quick-cut, which makes them suited for heartier recipes.” That coarseness means that cooks need to be deliberate about their use of steel-cut oats; according to Kierin Baldwin, chef-instructor of Pastry & Baking Arts at the Institute of Culinary Education's New York City campus, these oats “are not rolled at all, so they often require cooking for a while to soften.”
• Best use: To use them effectively for baking or cooking, “you would likely need to cook them beforehand and add them as an oatmeal unless you want a very coarse texture for something like a streusel.”
  

Rolled Oats

• Quick cooking: Rolled oats are steamed and pressed, so they cook more quickly. While steel-cut oats are simply cut-down versions of oat groats, rolled oats “are prepared from whole oat kernels that undergo slightly more processing than steel-cut oats – they are first steamed, then pressed into flakes using a roller, and then dried,” Laing says. 
• Absorbency: The flattening of rolled oats means that “they have a shorter cooking time than steel-cut oats because of their larger surface area,” Laing explains. Ramirez also adds that “rolled oats will absorb liquid just like flour, so it’s important to keep that in mind when you’re determining the ratio of dry to wet ingredients in your recipe, especially when it comes to those baked goods like breads and cookies [where] you want to retain moisture.” 

Quick-Cook Oats And Instant Oats

• Processing: Quick-cook oats and instant oats are heavily steamed and processed. If oat groats experience no processing, steel-cut oats experience minimal processing, and rolled oats experience slightly more processing, then instant and quick-cooking oats “undergo the most processing. They are produced by steaming oat groats for an extended period of time and then rolling them into thin pieces.
• Quick cooking: Processing oats in this way makes the cooking time shorter than all other varieties. The fine texture of instant oats is soft and smooth, and they are most often found on grocery stores in easy-to-use packets,” Laing says.
• Best for bakers: Baldwin tells us that instant and quick oats are popular choices for bakers “because they have been rolled quite thin and thus soften up easily without being pre-cooked.”

Tips To Keep In Mind For All Oats

• Always follow the recipe: There is no one size-fits all oat option for recipes. The question of which style of oat to use in a given recipe depends entirely on the specific recipe. Ramirez urges home cooks to consider the fact that all oats are absorbent by nature (the thinner the oats, the faster they absorb moisture); because of this, she “approaches the addition of oats into any recipe, whether it be overnight oats or an oat streusel topping for one of our seasonal pies, as an ingredient that’s almost flour-adjacent.” 
• Understand the time required for each: That said, if you’re looking for a go-to oat to keep in the house for baking projects, Ramirez says that “I normally always opt for rolled or quick-cook oats, which can be used to enhance texture and moisture in things like breads and cookies or turn into crispy flavor bombs when slow-roasted in granola or a streusel topping. I’ve found that steel-cut oats are better suited for recipes like overnight oats, where they can take their time absorbing liquid.”
  

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