Oats, Steel Cut, Organic, Superpail

Our steel cut oat groats are certified organic and perfect for baking & cooking purposes. Whole oats normally have a hull (also called a "husk") that surrounds the kernel, and the hull is basically inedible unless you're a horse, or similar. A groat is the oat kernel that has had the hull removed. (Oddly, the terms "hulled oats" and "dehulled oats" both generally refer to oats that have had their hulls removed... in other words, oat groats.) Once oats have had their hulls removed, they receive a minimal kilning treatment that prevents fats from becoming rancid (and this renders the germ non-sproutable). There's no such thing as a "home oat dehuller", so buying bulk stabilized oat groats is the way to get oats for use in your home kitchen. 

Steel cut oats are oat groats that have been chopped with a steel blade; steel cut oats are used for cooking, and are sometimes referred to as “Irish oatmeal”. 

During the process of light kilning, a few oat groats routinely become trapped temporarily in the conveyor system and get a little over-toasted, then later re-enter the grain stream. The exterior of those oats will be a darker brown color. Most buckets will have none of these kernels, but they may be present in any bucket up to a level of roughly a couple of kernels per cupful of grain. Even at the highest incidence, these darker kernels make no difference in the taste or other characteristics of the grain. 

Convenient & safe storage 

Our oat groats are certified organic and non-GMO, and come in six-gallon buckets (or pails... another word for the same container), containing 42 lbs. net weight of grain. The bulk steel cut oat groats in our bucket packaging have a shelf life of ten years. When you store grain at home, it needs to be protected in a couple of ways. First, it needs to be protected from a variety of little critters who'd like to get to it before you do. Weevils and rodents, for example. You also need to protect your grain from picking up excessive additional moisture, which can be drawn from the atmosphere. The buckets our organic steel cut oats come in provide full protection against these storage risks. They have airtight gasket-sealed lids, and oxygen absorber packets that remove the oxygen from the air in the bucket after we put the lid on. Our buckets safely lock out pests, so your steel cut oats enjoy complete peace and quiet until you want to use them. Note: If you don't already have a bucket lid removal tool, they make lid removal easy (see lower section of this web page).

Super-cleaned 

All of our whole grain oat groats are cleaned to ensure purity. Our steel cut oat groats are cleaned to 99.99% purity by weight. To clean, the oat groats are processed using a screener, gravity table, de-stoner, and magnets. Achieving this level of quality may require further processing yet, through a color sorter. No liquids, soaps or additives of any kind are used in the cleaning process.

Shelf Life

Our organic steel cut oats have a shelf life of 10 years when unopened and stored in a cool, dark, dry environment.

Non-GMO

All of Pleasant Hill Grain's grain products are natural (non-GMO). Also, PHG does not sell any grains, beans, lentils, pulses or seeds sourced from China.

Uses & Nutrition

Common oats ( avena sativa) are a cereal grain that’s high in soluble and insoluble fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals. Oats are popular both as human food and livestock feed. The plant will grow in a variety of environments, but does particularly well in fairly wet climates. Oats are particularly rich in the mineral magnesium—a co-factor to many enzymes which help the digestion system to run well by allowing glucose into the bloodstream and helping insulin from the pancreas control these blood glucose levels. Oats may either be flaked ( rolled), cracked, or ground into flour and are nutritional when eaten either cooked or raw. Due to their high levels of beta-glucan, oats are significantly helpful in lowering cholesterol levels as well as maintaining healthy blood sugar levels. Oats are also a good source of manganese, selenium, and phosphorus. The steel cut oats on this page are processed in a facility that handles wheat, barley, soy, tree nuts, sesame seed, and mustard.

The term “oat groats” refers to the oat grain kernel after the inedible hull has been removed. Whole oat groatscan be ground into flour for baking, cut into steel cut oats, or rolled into flakes for hot cereals, cookies, bars, etc; this processing style is known as “ rolled oats” or “flaked oats”. Sometimes you’ll hear of “instant oats” or “quick oats”, and these terms simply mean that the rolled oats have been pressed extra thin to shorten the cooking time.

There can be confusion with the word “oatmeal”; is it the staple breakfast porridge, or is it another way to refer to rolled oats? The word is actually used both ways! Muesli is a soaked, raw version of oatmeal.

By purchasing whole oat groats, you’ll be able to make fresh, wholesome oat flour or rolled oats at a moment’s notice. Flaking oats is a snap with an oat flaker. Kids have a lot of fun running manual flakers to help with oatmeal cookies, or breakfast porridge! Rolled/flaked oats can be used to make oatmeal, porridge, muesli, granola bars, fruit dessert toppings and more. To cook, boil 1 cup rolled oats with 4 cups water for 30 minutes. Whether baked, cooked, or raw, food tastes soooomuch better when it's fresh—and oats are no exception!

Oats are a soft grain and can easily be made into flour using a blender, or any electric or manual grain mill.

Oat flour provides texture to dishes and its mild flavor pairs well with cinnamon, dried and fresh fruit, thyme, mushrooms, walnuts, coffee, and coconut.

Looking for whole oats? Avena nuda, or “naked oats”, is an ancient variety of oats that grows with a very loose hull that’s removed easily by threshing, which means the oats can be sold whole. Since the hull is so loose on naked oats, it doesn’t protect the oats from disease the way the tighter hull on common oats does. Naked oats are also more fragile, making them more likely to shatter when ripe and be damaged in harvesting. Because of the difficulty in producing naked oats, they aren’t widely produced, making them hard to come by.

Along with many other grains, oats contain phytic acid. Phytic acid can bind to some minerals in the gut and block their absorption into your body, keeping you from utilizing those much needed nutrients. The best way to minimize this is to soak oats groats, rolled oats or oat flour in an acidic liquid for at least twelve hours before cooking or baking with the grain. By soaking oat groats in an acidic liquid, the enzyme phytase can neutralize the phytic acid. An acid such as whey, yogurt, kefir, lemon juice, or even apple cider vinegar should be added to the water you’re soaking the grain in to initiate the enzyme activity necessary to neutralize the phytic acid. Oat groats have a very low phytase content, so it’s good to add a food with a high phytase level to encourage the enzyme activity. Ryecontains more phytase than most other grains, so adding rye flour really boosts the enzyme activity. If soaking whole oat groats, remember to dry them completely before grinding or flaking.

Oat bran is the edible, outermost layer of the oat groat kernel. Oat bran has better insoluble fiber content than any other grain’s bran and also has good protein, vitamin and mineral content. Oat bran is a good addition to bread dough, other baked food, and cereal.

Oat milk is a non-dairy milk made by soaking whole oat groats, or steel cut oats, and then blending them with water, and pressed the mixture through a cheesecloth or other fine strainer.