Oatmeal

Depending on the parkin recipe milled porridge oats do not work properly. Proper parkin requires medium ground oatmeal not finely ground. It does make a huge difference.
I make it medium ground. It depends how long you process the oats. I think this is splitting hairs a bit as I doubt you would really know. But how can I prove it to you? I can only suggest that perhaps @Kake Lover (or me) makes a batch of parkin using both for comparison.
 
At the end of the d, all it will come down to is personal preference.
What I was trying, perhaps unsuccessfully, to say is that there is a difference between oatmeal and milled rolled porridge oats. It is what is done to them beforehand. Rather like lasagne, do you use precooked and dried, or the fresh stuff? It's personal preferences nothing more, but it will alter the end parkin and there is a reason why the two exist.
 
At the end of the d, all it will come down to is personal preference.
What I was trying, perhaps unsuccessfully, to say is that there is a difference between oatmeal and milled rolled porridge oats. It is what is done to them beforehand. Rather like lasagne, do you use precooked and dried, or the fresh stuff? It's personal preferences nothing more, but it will alter the end parkin and there is a reason why the two exist.

If I get time I will try to cook both and taste test them on other people. Is it to do with the stone grinding of the 'ground' oatmeal?
 
If I get time I will try to cook both and taste test them on other people. Is it to do with the stone grinding of the 'ground' oatmeal?
Rolled oats are steamed to get them out of their husks and then rolled flat. They don't come that way natural. Usually they are like wheat in an ear. In fact they are almost exactly like that.

Oatmeal in ground unsteamed oats, never exposed to steam.

And as for quick cook porridge oats....

Steel cut oats would be much closer because they are exactly that. Precut oats with a steel 'knife'. I'm not sure if they have water involved in their cutting.
 
There's a traditional cake called Parkin that has oatmeal in. It is a dark, slightly chewy, spicy, quite filling cake, usually made for Bonfire Night at the beginning of November when it's dark and cold.
None of the Parkin recipes I have in my collections have got oatmeal in them at all (not even the Yorkshire ones)!
 
I am surprised! Do they have anything else other than flour?
I've certainly seen many Parkin recipes without oatmeal. James Martin for example:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/sparklinparkin_14517


And Mary Berry uses porridge oats!

img_0656.jpg
 
None of the Parkin recipes I have in my collections have got oatmeal in them at all (not even the Yorkshire ones)!
There are 2 recipes here on CB which have been here a while, both have oatmeal in them!
https://www.cookingbites.com/threads/parkin.179/
https://www.cookingbites.com/threads/parkin-with-whisky.5362/

I think I feel the need to make some more...

Even Delia's version has oatmeal in it. In fact much more proportionally than either of the above recipes.
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/international/european/british/traditional-oatmeal-parkin

So far all of the top recipes online I have found in a quick search, all contain oatmeal.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1751649/yorkshire-parkin
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1940684/parkin
http://www.food.com/recipe/yorkshire-parkin-sticky-oatmeal-gingerbread-for-bonfire-night-333548
https://www.nigella.com/recipes/members/justine-patels-yorkshire-parkin
https://www.thespruce.com/traditional-yorkshire-parkin-recipe-435792
 
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the quaker oatmeal is my choice, when I'm off for work and a bit late lol i think you what I mean, I just grab oatmeal. i always have 3 spoons oatmeal and 1 spoon sugar and i'm good to go
 
It's the Delia Smith recipe for Parkin that I have. I must get to a Waitrose in the next few months so I can make parkin for Bonfire Night in November.

Is porridge made from rolled oats quite different from cooked oatmeal I wonder?
 
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