First, there are steel-cut oats. These are whole oat groats chopped into little nubs. They take forever to cook and taste like tiny, chewy gravel—in a good way, if you’re into that.
Then we have rolled oats—also called old-fashioned oats. These are steamed and then flattened into flakes. They cook in about five minutes, which is basically the speed of light in oat years.
Finally, there are instant oats. These are rolled oats that have been steamed even more, then rolled even thinner, and sometimes pre-cooked. They’re basically the oat equivalent of a microwave dinner—convenient, but who are you kidding?
