This article was in the Newsletter 9th October 2026
PORRIDGE OATSOctober 10th is International Porridge Day. Most people think that porridge is made from oats, but, porridge can be made from a wide range of other grains. But we are going to look at oats. What are porridge oats? Well this is where the problems start. People call a range of oat products porridge oats. Oats are different from most other grains in that after threshing they still have a husk on them. This is normally removed by milling them through a light weight set of millstones, set only just closer together than the size of the grains. This rubs the husks off and leaves the grains, now called groats in one piece. The husks are separated from the groats by sieving and winnowing. |
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OATS AS SEEN IN THE FIELD.Normally we process grain by milling to produce meal/flour. But oats have been processed in a number of ways to give a product that can be eaten. The simplest technique is to crush them flat breaking the bran layer. This is now done by putting them through a pair of contra rotating steel rolls. That produces rolled or Jumbo oats. |
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| The next technique is to cut each grain into small pieces. This is normally done through a specialist machine with a grid that only allow the groats to pass through vertically. They can’t pass right through due to a metal plate below. A sharp steel blade then passes between the grid and the plate cutting the groat into pieces. This gives either steel cut oats or pinhead oats. These are occasionally rolled to give small rolled oats. We use a food processor to produce pinhead oats. |
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PINHEAD OATS.The final process is to mill them as you would any other grain. We tend not to mill them as fine as we would to make flour but leave it quite coarse, so there are large pieces of bran still present. People do like their oatmeal at different degrees of coarseness and we are happy to mill it to peoples requirements. All of the above are called porridge oats by different people from different areas. People make their porridge from all of these either as separate products or a mixture. Our porridge oats are a mixture of medium oatmeal and small rolled oats. This gives the porridge a slightly lumpy texture in a smooth creamy base. |
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A BAG OF OUR PORRIDGEPick up a bag at one of our markets or order online for collection at the mill or by post. Also available at Half Moon Health Shop in Brampton, Wetheral Village Shop and Cranston’s Food Halls at Penrith and Orton. If you would like to keep up to date with news and happenings at the Mill please sign up to the Newsletter on the Website |
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