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OLD FASHIONED OATS vs QUICK-COOKING OR INSTANT OATS
Old-fashioned oats, also called rolled oats, are oats that have been husked (their outer, fibrous husks are removed), steamed, then flattened. This makes them softer and speeds up the cooking process without compromising texture too much. On the stovetop with boiling water, old fashioned oats take about 5 minutes to cook into a creamy, slightly chewy oatmeal with lots of texture.
Quick-cooking/instant oats are rolled oats that have been pressed much thinner, creating broken-up pieces of oats that are almost powdery. In boiling liquid on the stovetop, instant oats take less than a minute to cook. However, they don’t have much texture, since they’ve been broken into such tiny pieces, and they make for slightly mushy oatmeal.
IN A NUTSHELL: Quick cooking oats are old fashioned oats pressed even thinner that cook even faster.
Can I substitute one for the other? No. If a recipe calls for rolled oats, substituting instant oats won’t work because the texture is far more powdery and will make your batter gummy.
