lagne's Profile

Full disclosure: I'm a chef, and a certified food safety manager.

I'm sure that leaving the cooked oats to sit overnight results in a better texture than chilling them, but those who have raised concerns about bacterial growth are correct.

Cooked grains which are stored at improper temperatures (between 40 degrees and 140 degrees) carry MAJOR risk of foodborne illness.

Dried grains are not bacteria-free. They haven't been treated in any way to prevent bacterial growth. Water is not bacteria-free, either.

Boiling water can kill bacteria, as can heating the jars in a dishwasher as someone suggested.

One of the problems, though, is that there are all kinds of ways to re-introduce bacteria to the mixture after it's been cooked. Your spoon could harbor bacteria, or the side of your pot, or the finger you use to absentmindedly wipe the side of the jar, or if you sneeze or even breathe on the cooked mixture before leaving it overnight.

Keep in mind, also, that bacteria enter into a dormant "spore" phase in which they are resistant to boiling, freezing, or drying; in the right conditions (like leaving cooked oatmeal at room temperature for longer than four hours), the bacteria will begin multiplying again. So even if you sterilized all of your equpiment properly, boiled your mixture properly, and didn't re-contaminate anything, your chances of STILL ending up with foodborne illness are, unfortunately, pretty good. Not only do bacteria themselves cause illness, but so do the toxins they release; these toxins cannot be destroyed by any means (freezing, reheating, etc) and render the food inedible.

With respect, it's one thing to follow this method as an individual, but it's irresponsible and dangerous to recommend it to a wide audience.

I hope the original poster doesn't take this the wrong way, but I just made this recipe and had some issues. This might all be subject to personal tastes, but I thought it might be helpful to post my experience.

I was expecting something closer to a liquid consistency, but I actually got a final product that's similar to a very thin chocolate pudding - quite thick and opaque. Not a problem, but I might call it a "chocolate balsamic dip/sauce" instead, because it's definitely a sauce and not what I'd call a vinegar.

The bigger issue for me was that the balsamic flavor gets totally lost in the overwhelming amount of cocoa flavor. I stirred about 1/3 cup unreduced balsamic into the final product and YAY, balsamic/chocolate flavor! so I'm going to try this again with unreduced balsamic, which I think will suit my tastes better.

Anyway.. just one person's experience to consider... DEFINITELY try the recipe, because it's a fantastic, creative idea.. and it seems very flexible to individual tastes.