The Case for Make-Ahead Pressure-Cooker Oatmeal
My favorite way to make steel-cut oats has quickly become using a rice cooker, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t also shout out the Instant Pot (and other similar electric multicookers, though these days it sure feels like Instant Pot has cornered the market). The two methods have more in common than not in terms of setup and final product; the differences are few. Which is to say, the Instant Pot has become my other favorite way of making steel-cut oats.
More than anything else the thing that these devices offer is the ability to make steel-cut oatmeal without any of the stirring and waiting. In both cases, that’s primarily because you can fill them the night before with oats, water, and whatever else, set a timer, and wake up the next day to the oatmeal ready and waiting. I don’t consider that a small thing—the main reason I don’t make oatmeal on a weekday morning is because I’m pressed for time and standing and stirring a pot of long-cooking oats is out of the question.
My experience is that the same ratio of three cups water for every one cup oats that works well for a rice cooker also work well in an Instant Pot, assuming you agree with my preference for oatmeal that’s thick but not stiff. If not, you can easily adjust ratios to meet your tastes.
Is Instant Pot Oatmeal Really Faster Than Stovetop?
A lot of people claim that an Instant Pot makes oatmeal faster than the traditional stovetop method. I wholeheartedly disagree with this. When you factor in heating time, cooking time, and then depressurization time, Instant Pot oatmeal actually takes quite a bit longer. This is partly because you need to use the natural release method for depressurization, meaning you have to wait as the cooker cools gradually over time until the built-up internal pressure drops all on its own and the cooker lid unlocks. Rapid-release methods like opening the vent aren’t a good idea with oatmeal, which is prone to foaming; if your oatmeal foams up through the pressure-release valve, you’ll be dealing with a mess and also potentially damaging your cooker.
Just as with a rice cooker, which also cooks steel-cut oatmeal quite slowly, setting it all up in advance and using a timer makes this downside moot—this extended cooking time can happen in the early hours of the morning while you’re still sleeping. As long as you set the timer right so that the oatmeal is ready but hasn’t been sitting for ages before you wake up, it’ll feel like it took no time at all.
While some may feel differently, I’d go as far as to say that if I wake up in the morning and want oatmeal, there’s almost no chance at all that I’d take out my Instant Pot to make it; it will simply take too long from start to finish for that to be an option. I’ll just cook it on the stovetop in that case instead. To me, it really only makes sense if you’re setting the cooker up in advance and then leaving it to make the oatmeal while you’re sleeping.
Preventing a Foam Incident
As just mentioned, one concern of cooking oatmeal in an Instant Pot is that it can foam up and clog the vent. This isn’t guaranteed to happen, but it can. There are three things you can do to avoid this:
- Don’t overfill the cooker. The more oatmeal you try to cook in the Instant Pot, the less headroom there will be inside the cooking chamber to contain foaming without it reaching the lid. The recipe below calls for one cup of oats and three cups of water, and makes a modest amount to feed about four people. You can probably make a bit more in most cookers, but try to avoid pushing the limits. A good rule of thumb is to not exceed the halfway point of the cooker’s maximum fill line, but you should of course consult your cooker’s specific user manual for the best guidance for your machine.
- Add fat. Fat can interfere with bubble formation, and when you have a foam-prone mixture like oatmeal, a little fat is a small insurance policy against the foam bubbling up and getting out of control. In the recipe below, a small pat of butter goes into the cooker pot for just this reason. It doesn’t hurt that butter is a welcome addition to oatmeal anyway (if you do not welcome it, use a tablespoon of oil).
- Depressurize naturally. I already covered this above, but I’ll repeat it here just to complete the list. Rapidly releasing a pressure cooker by opening its steam release valve causes the contents inside the cooker to boil violently, which can produce a tremendous amount of foam. By allowing the cooker to cool down on its own time, it will depressurize and release without the foaming risk of a rapid release.
Instant Pot Oatmeal Pros and Cons
At home, I almost always reach for my rice cooker to make steel-cut oatmeal in advance instead of the Instant Pot. I’ll explain my reasons, though I should be clear that a lot of this will depend on the specific devices you own. Putting aside the pros that they both share, like no-stir and set-it-and-forget it functionality, here’s where I think the Instant Pot excels and doesn’t for oatmeal.
Instant Pot Pro (Yeah, Just One That I Can Think of)
The one thing I especially like about steel-cut oatmeal cooked in an Instant Pot is the specific texture the oats develop from this cooking method—plump and tender with a notable juicy bite. The rice cooker also makes great oatmeal, but I don’t detect this subtle but specific quality in the oats that come out of it.
Instant Pot Cons
My main criticism of the Instant Pot as a tool for cooking oatmeal more efficiently is that on most of the models I’m aware of, you can’t set a “ready by” time the way you can on a lot of rice cookers. Instead you have to do some mental math to figure out how long the cooking and depressurization phases will take, and when you’ll want your oatmeal ready, and then calculate how long from when you’re setting the machine it should wait before starting so it’s ready at the right time. If you’re not setting it up at the exact same time every night, or if your desired “ready” time shifts, you’re forced to constantly recalculate. And that assumes your estimates are correct on the cooking times.
I’m making it sound a little harder than it is, and you absolutely have some wiggle room since the cooker can keep the oatmeal warm for a while if it finishes early and sits for a bit. But still, it’s way easier to do what I can on my rice cooker, which is just tell it: Make sure this is ready at X time.
My other small complaint about the pressure cooker is that, because you have to rely on the natural release method of depressurization, you can literally get locked out of your oatmeal even though it’s ready until the cooker releases itself. That’s potentially annoying, and unlike most rice cookers, which you can open and dip into as soon as the oatmeal is ready.
On that last point, though, I should mention that I turn it into a pro: Since I’m adding butter, I take advantage of it by melting it first in the cooker and then toasting the oats in it, deepening their flavor (then I add the water, seal the cooker, and set it to do the rest). This is something you can also do in many rice cookers, if you wish, so the Instant Pot doesn’t have a real leg up, but it feels more built-in given the requirement of adding a fat from the start.
In an electric multicooker (such as an Instant Pot), melt butter using the sauté function, then add oats and cook, stirring frequently, until lightly toasted and fragrant, 3-4 minutes.
Add water and salt (make sure oats are all submerged), close cooker, and set to cook at high pressure for 5 to 15 minutes (shorter if you want a nuttier chew and longer if you want a creamier, smoother result); if your cooker has a dedicated porridge mode, you can use that instead, following the manufacturer’s instructions. Using the timer function on the cooker, set it to start cooking such that it will be ready and depressurized naturally when you want to eat (assume about 10-15 minutes heating time, 5-15 minutes cooking at pressure, and 30 -45 minutes depressurization time).
When ready, open cooker and stir oatmeal to ensure an even consistency throughout. Spoon into bowls and top as desired, then serve right away.
Special Equipment
Instant Pot or other electric multicooker
Notes
The ratio of 3 cups of water for every 1 cup of steel-cut oats produces a thick but not stiff porridge, which I like. You may need to adjust the ratio of oats to water if your preferences are different from mine, or if your cooker produces slightly different results. Once you figure out the perfect ratio for your tastes and cooker, you’ll be good to go.
It may be tempting to use milk instead of water; just beware that it’s not safe to leave milk sitting in a cooker at room temperature overnight if you’re planning to use the timer function. Milk also runs a higher risk of scorching as the sealed cooker heats, since you’re not able to stir.
Make Ahead and Storage
Leftover cooked oatmeal can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 3 months. For best results, freeze and thaw in individual portions and thaw overnight in the fridge.
