Book Review: The Quaker Oats Wholegrain Cookbook

Title: The Quaker Oats Wholegrain Cookbook

Author: Quaker Oats company staff

Date: not given (Amazon says 1979)

Publisher: not given

ISBN: none

Length: 64 pages (covers numbered as pages)

Illustrations: several full-color photos

Quote: “[Y]ou'll find delicious wholegrain oat recipes, of course. But you'll also learn about...some different, more basic ways to cook.”

In 1979 an ISBN was not considered to define the difference between a Real Book and a pamphlet. However, even then, The Quaker Oats Wholegrain Cookbook could fairly be described as more pamphlet than book. It wasn't sold in bookstores; it was sold to people who sent in proofs of purchase of oatmeal. Despite the more general term “wholegrain” in the title, all the recipes call for oats. But this book does present some relatively “new, different” ways to cook oats. Oatmeal is not just for cereal and cookies any more. Oatmeal is naturally gluten-free and can be a yummy, healthy alternative to rice and corn for us gluten-intolerant people.

The “Five Exciting New Ways to Use Wholegrain Oats” are (1) by grinding the crushed but still “whole” grains to flour in a blender and using this flour in baking; (2) using the oat flour to thicken soup, sauce, or gravy; (3) toasting the crushed oats for a different flavor and texture; (4) frying the oats in butter with flavorful ingredients for either savory or sweet crunch toppings; and (5) gilding the oats with egg, then frying them in a little butter and then simmering with a little liquid, the way you'd cook a rice pilaf.

Oats are naturally gluten-free. For a long time most oats grown in the United States were cultivated and processed along with other grains, so the finished oat products sold in supermarkets were not gluten-free. However, if Monsanto's glyphosate-based “Roundup” poison spray served any good purpose on Earth, it was to raise North Americans' consciousness of celiac disease. (Before glyphosate, celiac disease was rare, found only in a small percentage of the people who inherited a minority gene.) People who didn't even have the celiac gene were popping up with false celiac reactions, and no, they weren't psychosomatic or mass-hysteria reactions...anyway, the false celiac phenomenon this web site has been observing and documenting did create a market for gluten-free products, including more carefully prepared oats. Oat products are now much safer for celiacs to eat.

So, how much will this little book expand the gluten-free cook's repertoire of relatively simple, cheap, and natural complex carbs? Quite a lot.

(1), (2) Oat flour can be safely substituted for wheat flour (or glyphosate/GMO-contaminated cornstarch) in any recipe where you use just a little grain for a coating or thickening agent. Because oat bran is softer and, if fresh, has a less overwhelming flavor than wheat bran, wholegrain oat flour is a better substitute for white flour than whole wheat flour would be. Once you've ground the oats, which are soft enough to grind easily in a blender, no further special techniques are needed; oat flour for wheat flour is a simple substitution that will work in almost any recipe you already had.

(3) Toasted oats have a slightly stronger flavor and texture than raw oats. They can be substituted for bread crumbs in desserts, meat loaf, fish cakes, etc., or as toppings. They are the basic ingredient in granola.

(4) The fried oat crunch recipes may be yummy, but are too high in fat and/or sugar to qualify as real health food. As party foods, however, a parfait or sundae of oat crunch, fruit, and ice cream or yogurt may be a more appealing alternative to “real” wheat-based cakes or cookies than the more elaborate, expensive gluten-free baked goods often are. Nothing gluten-free is ever going to be quite the same as those layer cakes baby-boomers' mothers and grandmothers used to make, or those crunchy breakfast cereals and wonderfully spongy Twinkies and ooey-gooey doughnuts baby-boomers used to snack on, before we went gluten-free. A buttery, sugary, naturally gluten-free oat crunch dessert might be more satisfactory than a pricey pastry that, by trying hard to resemble a wheat-based dessert, merely reminds some of us that it isn't.

(5) Because the egg-puffed “golden” oats are used more or less like rice in pilaf-type recipes...well, they definitely add a new flavor to the cook's repertoire. Additionally, although just one egg will gild and puff enough oats to serve at least four, the egg converts the oats into a protein food.

After discussing these five innovative ways to use oats, the writers present a generous sample of more traditional recipes that would traditionally have been made with other grains—soups thickened with oat rather than wheat flour, pilafs made with puffed oats rather than rice, salads with toasted or fried oats in place of croutons, meat loaves and balls and burgers made with oats rather than breadcrumbs, baked meats coated with oats, candies and granola bars made with oats and fruit and/or nuts and/or chocolate, frozen desserts or cheese balls crusted with crunchy fried oats, all naturally gluten-free.

In among the gluten-free recipes are mixed an equally generous number of recipes for baked goods that are still basically made with white wheat flour, but textured with oats. Oatmeal breads and oatmeal cookies are such a nice traditional way to add soft, palatable fibre to baked goods wheat eaters can enjoy that it's a shame that they just about have to be made with some wheat in order to work.

The writers do present one recipe for cookies made with oat flour only, but warn that these cookies will be both “heartier” and crumblier than wheat-based cookies. That's putting it tactfully. While all-corn and all-rice flours produce baked goods that crumble back into meal in the hand, all-oat flour tends to produce baked goods that have the heavy yet crumbly consistency of dried-out oat porridge. The all-oat-flour cookies are made with lavish amounts of shortening and sweetening, then pressed thin for quick baking, which yields cookies the writers describe as “light, rich, and [only] a little chewy.”

The true oat-based answers to cookies are, however, the sometimes simmered but not usually baked candy-cookies (like those “Cow Patties” served at the cafe where I'm typing this) and their denser, more nutritious but even higher-calorie cousins the granola bars. In both of these types of dessert the oats are bound by generous quantities of saturated fat (butter, chocolate), usually even more ample amounts of sweetening (sugar, honey, molasses, dates, raisins, other dried fruit), and sometimes milk or egg. These confections are good choices for anyone who either wants to grow bigger or is preparing to run a marathon, and for the rest of us, well, as long as our skinny pants fit comfortably an occasional treat does no harm, but some people need to be reminded not to eat the things every day.

If seriously tempted to cook and eat the richer, more tempting oat products described here, you probably should not own a copy of this book. If you can be an adult about rich desserts—if, even if you've kept the child's ability to enjoy overindulging in them, you've at least developed the adult's ability to choose not to overindulge—then this book is for you.

Small though it is, this web site's price for most books is $5 per book + $5 per package + $1 per online payment. Somebody is probably offering this one for less. However, ten or twelve or maybe even more books of this size will fit into one $5 package; if you order other books from this web site your total order may come out to less than it would add up to if you ordered from lots of different Amazon sellers.