Milk oat porridge

I've long been an eater/cook of milk porridge. What I mean by that is oats cooked in milk with brown sugar (or honey, or regular sugar). Yes, the oats are actually cooked in the milk. They are not cooked in water with milk added afterward.

Anyway, I have some tips regarding such porridge:

* Cook it thoroughly, and not in the microwave. Oats and other grains tend to be much healthier if they're fully cooked. In my case, I digest them better if they're fully cooked, which means I have fewer grain intolerance issues. They do, however, taste great and provide energy even when raw, but yeah.

* If your brown sugar supply is limited, use less milk to get a sweeter taste. It will also boil faster this way. Also, see the next item.

* If you don't want the oats to get gummy, add some food grade diatomaceous earth. Each oat should then mostly retain the quality of having shape and texture (I hypothesize that this makes it more difficult to burn, too, but I still need to evaluate this). This will also make it so you don't need to use as much milk. It also makes it so the milk doesn't curdle as easily (if you add something acidic—jam can be acidic, by the way). It also makes the oats and the milk easier for me to digest (I imagine even when raw). Diatomaceous earth can chelate metals; so, you may not want to use it in a metal pan (I use a glass sauce pot, normally). Glass sauce pots can be hard to find, but thrift stores sometimes have them.

* Alternatively, if you don't want the oats to get gummy, use more milk, and eat it sooner than later (oats continue to absorb liquid after they're cooked).

* Realize that milk can burn (and it's easy to burn, which is probably why more people don't eat milk porridge). So, if you put it on a high temperature, you'll want to turn it down after a while, unless you like burned milk. Microwaved milk doesn't burn easily (but I don't recommend microwave cooking, even if it can taste good).

[HASH]milk [HASH]porridge