Oatmeal.
Oats are substantial, nutritious and wholesome, being rich in gluten and fat. Oatmeal for the table is made from kiln dried, large, white oats, freed from the husks. Alone it does not make good bread. If long used as a sole or chief food it is reputed to overtax the digestive organs, heat the blood, and produce eruptions of the skin. Many claim, however, that these effects are due solely to insufficient cooking of the meal or porridge, and there are excellent preparations in market which have been well cooked by steam and afterwards dried.
Besides these there are various brands of Scotch, Irish, Canadian and American oatmeal, “Crushed,” “Rolled,” “Granulated,” etc., also oat “Avena,” “Farina,” etc. Groats are the whole kernels of oats deprived of their husks. The consumption of oatmeal has vastly increased within five or six years, and is rapidly becoming universal. Salt only after cooking. If added before, salt tends to harden the meal and prevent its swelling.