Have you ever lived without an oven? . For several months I had no oven. I had to change how I cooked. That’s nothing on kitchens a few hundred (let alone a few thousand) years ago though; ovens are a really recent thing. . Before ovens, in England, many dishes were steamed instead of being ovened. . Here’s my most recent steamed oat pudding. These were common in the UK (where in many parts oats were the staple cereal) and were often as simple as oats, stock and a bit of onion. Here I’ve added pork, walnuts and orange too. I steamed this for two hours in a glass bowl resting raised off the bottom of a large saucepan that had two inches of simmering water at the bottom. . It’s delicious and the recipe will be going in the book on oats I’m dreaming of writing! . See my story today for more information (and details of how I messed up the first one of these!)