The Beracha on Overnight Oatmeal

Q. What beracha does one recite on overnight oatmeal?

A. Overnight oatmeal is made by soaking oats in cold water or milk for many hours. The finished product resembles oatmeal. The oats stick together and form a porridge like consistency, but unlike regular oatmeal, it was never cooked. On regular cooked oatmeal, we recite Mezonos. Since this resembles oatmeal, perhaps this too should be Mezonos. On the other hand, on raw oats we recite Ha’odama and these oats are still raw, so maybe they should also be Ha’odama. Rav Schachter was presented with this question, and he ruled that the beracha remains Ha’odama. The beracha cannot be upgraded to Mezonos unless the oats stick together through cooking. One can bring a proof to this inquiry from the beracha on raw dough. The beracha on flour is Shehakol. The beracha on dough remains Shehakol until the dough is cooked. Even though the flour combines together to form dough, the beracha does not change unless it is cooked. The same applies to oatmeal. However, Sefer V’zos Ha’Beracha (Birurim 27:9) writes that according to Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach zt”l, the beracha would be Mezonos.

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.