Previously; so the only thing wrong with the “Chow” video on how to make Porridge from Oat Groats is that in the process of talking excitedly about what you can put in it, they don’t really talk much about “how much water to put into porridge”.

With standard shop-bought porridge oats, I am used to a system of 1 scoop porridge to 2 scoops of water, or a 2:1 ratio by volume; but volumetric measurements are not easily repeatable, and are a bit unscientific.

A quick measurement of my random but typical porridge scoop (not exactly a “cup”) shows it holds 64g of rolled oats, versus 164g of water; running the math: (164*2)/64 = 5.125 (apparently I got lucky with the numbers) – or five-and-one-eighth-to-one.

I’ve been somewhat haphazardly experimenting with the hand-milled groats for the past few days, and the number above bears this out; the most successful recipe so far has been a 6:1 mix of 100g of oats to 600g / 600ml of water, for a creamy, smooth consistency which you might just about be able to stand a small spoon in. Previous attempts at 3:1 and 4:1 were unsatisfactory concrete in which you could stand a very large spoon indeed, and needed to be cut and blended with arbitrary amounts of water to make them edible.

I’m thinking that the overnight soaking assists water-uptake and – perhaps combined with the extra surface area. – means that it can hold a little more water than the rolled-oats and/or steel-cut pinmeal would hold; but once we’re talking about this level of detail then the matter of personal taste comes into it, which would vary wildly.

But there you have it: for my tastes, somewhere between a 5:1 (stiff) to 6:1 (smooth but thick) ratio of water-to-porridge by mass, seems to be about right; oh, and DO NOT SKIP ADDING BUTTER AND SALT if salt and fat are not already in your mix, because I forgot them one day and the result was pretty dreadful. If your butter actually contains salt, then remember to allow for that, too.

More photos, etc, will come with future recipes.