Advanced options
Rolled oats: 5 mins on the hob stirring occasionally, or 2-3 in the microwave (big bowl: it climbs). Pinch of salt is the difference between porridge and wallpaper paste: add it early. Jumbo oats want a few minutes more; pinhead/steel-cut a different recipe entirely (25+ mins). It thickens as it stands: pull it off heat slightly loose.
What The Porridge Calculator Works Out
- Oats: 50g of rolled oats per person, the creamy centre of the national argument. Own-brand oats are among the cheapest breakfasts in the shop per bowl, and sachets sell the same oats at several times the price plus sugar.
- Liquid: the oats weight x 1.2 (to convert grams to a volume of oats) x your ratio, rounded to 25ml. 1:3 by volume is creamy, 1:2.5 stands a spoon up, 1:3.5 is the loose Scandinavian pour. A pinch of salt added early is the one non-negotiable.
- Method: about 5 minutes on a medium heat for rolled oats, stirring as it thickens, then a minute standing. Pull it off the heat slightly loose, because it keeps thickening on its own schedule.
- Oats per person (advanced): override the 50g standard: 40g for a light bowl, 60g to 75g for a big appetite or a hard day.
- Oat type (advanced): changes the method and timing: jumbo oats 8-10 minutes, pinhead or steel-cut 25-30 minutes with an extra volume of liquid, instant sachets 2 minutes. Overnight oats run the same ratio soaked cold.
- Liquid choice (advanced): half milk and half water is the default; all milk, oat drink or water (the Scottish way) change the cost and the calories but not the quantities.
- Cost per bowl and household cost per year (advanced): oats priced per kilo (own-brand GBP 1.00 to GBP 1.50, branded GBP 2.50 plus) and milk per litre (a 4-pint bottle works out around GBP 0.65 to GBP 0.75 a litre), multiplied by the bowls your household eats in a year. A two-person daily habit typically costs under GBP 100 a year.
- Calories per bowl (advanced): oats at about 380 kcal per 100g plus the milk share (whole milk 64 kcal per 100ml, semi-skimmed 47, oat drink 45, water none), before toppings. The beta-glucan fibre in oats carries an approved cholesterol-lowering claim.
- In cups and oats bought per year (advanced): the same quantities in 250ml cups for recipe-book users, and the kilos of oats a year of breakfasts gets through so you can buy the big bag.