All About Oats

What are the differences between old-fashioned, quick-cooking, and instant oatmeal? 

All three varieties of oats are flattened between rollers to speed cooking. For even faster cooking, both instant and quick oats are steamed, toasted, and cut into smaller pieces (instant are smaller than quick) before packaging.

We prepared instant oatmeal, quick oats, and old-fashioned rolled oats and found that they all tasted fine. Both instant and quick oats were “mushy,” tasters said. In the microwave, both of these oat types take 90 seconds to cook, while the old-fashioned oats take about a minute longer. One serving of instant oatmeal costs about 32 cents—more than double the cost of the other two. So if you’re buying the instant packets, you’re paying for all sorts of flavorings and additives. We recommend that you buy
old-fashioned oats.

THE BOTTOM LINE   Old-fashioned rolled oats have the best texture and take only a minute longer to cook.