How Cereal Is Made(luckypeach.com)
luckypeach.com
How Cereal Is Made
http://luckypeach.com/how-cereal-is-made/
14 comments
My experience is basically 'every' non-horrible supermarket in the US has rolled oats, usually Bob's Red Mill: http://www.bobsredmill.com/organic-thick-rolled-oats.html
Those are looking good (big and thick flakes, well separated from each other, also as an organic product probably caters to people like me, and the text explicitly confirms what I'm looking for).
Good to know it could be easier in the US to find good oats than in Canada or the UK (actually this is confirmed by me also finding good oats quite quickly in Boston when I was there for a few weeks).
Mostly I wanted to make the point that if you've tried making muesli with oats from a standard shop/super market in a non-Swiss country (likely with the exception of Germany and Austria?), then chances are you didn't enjoy it because they were not suited for the purpose, and it might pay off trying again.
Reading Wikipedia [1] I notice that I should also try steel-cut oats some time (more bran meaning more taste and health benefits?)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolled_oats
Good to know it could be easier in the US to find good oats than in Canada or the UK (actually this is confirmed by me also finding good oats quite quickly in Boston when I was there for a few weeks).
Mostly I wanted to make the point that if you've tried making muesli with oats from a standard shop/super market in a non-Swiss country (likely with the exception of Germany and Austria?), then chances are you didn't enjoy it because they were not suited for the purpose, and it might pay off trying again.
Reading Wikipedia [1] I notice that I should also try steel-cut oats some time (more bran meaning more taste and health benefits?)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolled_oats
I think the mushy ones go through steaming.
So just choose dry-rolled/steel-cut vs. steam-flaked/rolled.
Like GFK_of_xmaspast said, it's largely a matter of choosing the porridge/baking shelves instead of cereal/muesli shelves.
Like GFK_of_xmaspast said, it's largely a matter of choosing the porridge/baking shelves instead of cereal/muesli shelves.
I'm not sure there's such a thing as non-steamed dry-rolled oats. Do you have a reference that those exist? The Wikipedia article I linked says that even steel-cut oats are steamed.
> it's largely a matter of choosing the porridge/baking shelves
This must be a US thing. I've never seen the brand that GFK_of_xmaspast mentioned in the UK or Canada, and have never seen any oats with that kind of quality in any supermarket in either country either.
> it's largely a matter of choosing the porridge/baking shelves
This must be a US thing. I've never seen the brand that GFK_of_xmaspast mentioned in the UK or Canada, and have never seen any oats with that kind of quality in any supermarket in either country either.
Are you talking about "Familia Swiss Muesli Cereal"? If so, I agree it's great. In the Denver, CO area you can get it in a grocery store called 'Sprouts', otherwise Amazon has it, although a tad expensive:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dap...
As mentioned I'm used to mixing my muesli myself, and I don't explicitly remember having tried muesli mixes or oats from Familia. The Familia brand looks familiar from my time in Switzerland though, I suspect they may have been one of the first companies offering mixes there (the trend started around the early 90ies IIRC), and the products you linked do look good (oats as main ingredient, no added sugar, flavors etc.).
Here are some of the sources I'm buying when in Switzerland:
https://produkte.migros.ch/bio-vollkornhaferfloeckli-fein
https://produkte.migros.ch/m-classic-haferflocken-grob
http://www.coop.ch/pb/site/medien/node/82444422/Lde/index.ht.... -- can't find actual product page (oh, that's a corporate communication message that says that recently they accidentally sold conventionally produced ones as organic. Disappointingly worded, too, they say they're "withdrawing" them (just from their stock) since those don't fulfill their quality demands, when in fact I think they are required by contracts (or perhaps even trademark law?) to do so due to the "Knospe" organic product sign being used inappropriately. Anyway, organic or not does not have much influence on taste or health, at least compared to using oats versus puffed stuff.)
Here are some of the sources I'm buying when in Switzerland:
https://produkte.migros.ch/bio-vollkornhaferfloeckli-fein
https://produkte.migros.ch/m-classic-haferflocken-grob
http://www.coop.ch/pb/site/medien/node/82444422/Lde/index.ht.... -- can't find actual product page (oh, that's a corporate communication message that says that recently they accidentally sold conventionally produced ones as organic. Disappointingly worded, too, they say they're "withdrawing" them (just from their stock) since those don't fulfill their quality demands, when in fact I think they are required by contracts (or perhaps even trademark law?) to do so due to the "Knospe" organic product sign being used inappropriately. Anyway, organic or not does not have much influence on taste or health, at least compared to using oats versus puffed stuff.)
[deleted]
Aren't you just looking for this, available basically everywhere? http://www.quakeroats.com/products/hot-cereals/old-fashioned...
They "suggest" eating it hot, but I've happily munched on handfuls of it raw.
They "suggest" eating it hot, but I've happily munched on handfuls of it raw.
I've bought oats of this brand in the UK when I first got there, and IIRC I did several times as they were a bit better than some other brands, but they still weren't what I was looking for. Perhaps they have several kinds, though. Those must have been what I bought: http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=263895126
As a fellow Swiss living in San Francisco, one of the most depressing things is just how hard it is to find good healthy food in America, and find the delicious food I was used to. Mostly: good bread, saucisse au choux, müsli, good milk, cervelat, cenovis, etc. (As I'm sure you can tell—I'm from the french side.)
Since you're in SF, you can find raw whole milk from Organic Pastures at various stores not far away. At least that'd good milk. ;-)
If you're living in SF and can't find all that (with the possible exception of cenovis), you aren't looking!
If you can direct me to somewhere I can buy saucisse au choux and cervelat in San Francisco, I will be eternally grateful and will buy you several beers.
And as for what makes for good milk / bread, it's a bit more subjective. You can get close, but can't quite match the quality / convenience of having a good bakery or "laiterie" (dairy store?) nearby.
Cenvovis is actually less of a problem because it's pretty easy to grab some when I visit Switzerland and it'll last a while.
And as for what makes for good milk / bread, it's a bit more subjective. You can get close, but can't quite match the quality / convenience of having a good bakery or "laiterie" (dairy store?) nearby.
Cenvovis is actually less of a problem because it's pretty easy to grab some when I visit Switzerland and it'll last a while.
Even in Switzerland those mixes are getting an ever stronger foothold, but you can still buy bare rolled oats easily everywhere. In Canada and England you generally can't buy them in the standard supermarket except if you're lucky, but you can get them from health food stores, also some unexpected places like "Jamaican Oats" from a Jamaican food store. Some kinds found in alternative places are the inverse of mushy: pretty hard and with a tendency to be bitter, they are still usable if soaked over night though. So, it takes a bit of time to find the right source. There are smaller and bigger variants, this doesn't really matter (other than giving a different texture).
I'm preparing them with zero added sugar (if you're used to sweet cereals you may want to start with sugar and lower it over time), just oats, milk, yoghurt, fresh fruit, sometimes a small amount of raisins, and nuts, let them soak for a bit (at least about 15 minutes, e.g. while eating some bread, to ensure they are not dry anymore inside), and for guests add some cream for even better taste :). You can find various "muesli recipe"s online that are variations of this.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muesli
[2] and it's not just subjective, it seems: I've prepared muesli for a Canadian and he found it delicious
PS. I use whole milk. Skimmed milk is crazy, way worse taste and probably worse for health (since, as seems to be the consensus nowadays, it's not fat that makes you fat [3]). Also, yoghurt made from whole milk and with no other ingredients (i.e. nature, no sugar or fruit or artificial flavoring).
[3] anecdotal evidence from myself: I'm slim, but put on weight when moving from Switzerland to Canada, but that stopped and reverted after I made an effort to find the food that I was used to, which involved finding oats for muesli, buying bread made from whole grains, (raw) sauerkraut (can be eaten raw with olive oil), etc. (I also felt stressed at that time, which may have had an effect as well. But one effect that muesli clearly had is that it relieved me from problems with constipation.)