Please help me store my oats.

September 18, 2009 5:43 PM

Please help me find the perfect oatmeal container.

My mother-in-law has an oatmeal container I covet, and I'm trying to find one for myself. I want it to:

- be clear
- be sturdy
- have a secure lid that's easy to open
- be around 4 quarts (bigger is okay)
- have a nook on the outside for holding a scoop, and the scoop should be 1/4 cup or larger
- be available in the USA, preferably on-line, or else in a store in the Seattle area

I don't want to put the scoop inside the container, I want it to be attached to the outside. Yeah, I know, I'm being very picky, but I cook a lot of oatmeal. The container my MIL has is about 30 years old and has no useful information. I like these, but they don't have the scoop receptacle. We go through oats quickly and don't need to worry about them getting rancid.

Suggestions?

posted by The corpse in the library to shopping (9 comments total)

Silly idea: Why not just leave the scoop "scooped" inside the oatmeal in the above linked jar?
posted by wiretap at 6:51 PM on September 18

This might be too big, but take a look anyway.
posted by pghjezebel at 6:52 PM on September 18

Or along pghjezebel's line of thinking, you could just get this and attach it to the 4-qt container you like.
posted by adiabat at 7:06 PM on September 18

BTW, I have the containers you linked. They're available at Bed Bath & Beyond. They're generally nice, they are easy to open and close, but they shatter if dropped, and they can't be washed in the dishwasher.
posted by clarkstonian at 8:48 PM on September 18

I am fascinated by the Displays2Go site, so what about this kind of dispenser instead? There are other types with gravity feeds too.
posted by cabingirl at 9:04 PM on September 18

I keep my oatmeal in one of these (the 74 oz size). It does not have the requisite outside-of-jar-scoop-storage, but if you don't mind going slightly DIY with this, you can tie the scoop to the lid with a piece of string.
posted by kitty teeth at 9:11 PM on September 18

We buy oatmeal in 25 lb sacks which we decant into a 5 gallon bucket. The bucket lives in the pantry in the basement and we keep a simple 1 gallon pickle jar in the kitchen. We do not have a dedicated scoop. The 1 cup scoop is in a drawer nearby and I've never found it to be a problem. (We eat oatmeal at least 4 times a week.)
posted by vespabelle at 9:50 PM on September 18

I keep my oatmeal in a tall "Lock & Lock: storage container. It is air tight and has a pour spout on the lid - it's perfect!
posted by pamspanda at 4:07 AM on September 19

What about this? It's glass and comes with a spoon that attaches to the lid.
posted by gingerbeer at 9:38 AM on September 19