Breakfast Cereals
While it may seem odd to us today, accustomed as we are to charges that many dry breakfast cereals lack food value and to advertising attempts to convince us otherwise, breakfast cereals actually began as part of the health-food craze of the 1890s. The first dry, flaked breakfast cereal was developed by the Kellogg brothers, two of sixteen Michigan siblings. They came from a family of Seventh Day Adventists, a religious group headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan, that emphasized attention to health and a simple, vegetarian diet. classify term="John Harvey Kellogg" project="wsd/wi" type="bookxref">John Harvey Kellogg (1852-1943) was a young medical doctor when he took over the Adventist Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek in 1876. He renamed that Institute the Battle Creek Sanitarium--deliberately changing the common term sanitorium--and promoted his patients' health through good diet. Dr. Kellogg constantly experimented with ways to concoct tasty meals for his patrons using nuts and grains. He invented Granola in 1877, as well as peanut butter and a number of meat-substitute foods such as Protose (for beef) and Nuttose (for veal). He also invented Caramel Coffee, a grain substitute for real coffee.
Dr. Kellogg's younger brother, Will Keith (1860-1951), worked as the Sanitarium's administrator and assisted John Harvey in the development of his foodstuffs, although the brothers didn't get along well. In 1894 the Kelloggs accidentally produced flaked breakfast cereal when they left an experimental boiled wheat dough in the kitchen for a few days. When they pushed the dried dough through rollers, it produced flakes that were tasty when baked. Sanitarium patients loved the new concoction when served with milk, and after they returned home, ordered the flakes by mail. The Kelloggs introduced corn flakes in 1898. In 1903, Will Keith split with his brother John and started the Kellogg Toasted Corn Flake Company, marketing the corn flakes with added malt, sugar, and salt. Through massive advertising and free sample give-aways, Will Keith made his product the world's most popular breakfast cereal and revolutionized American breakfast habits.
The Kelloggs weren't the first to market dry breakfast cereal, however. The inventor Henry D. Perky of Denver, Colorado, had made a machine in 1893 that shredded wheat and formed it into little pillow-shaped biscuits. He marketed it as Shredded Wheat.
Another breakfast cereal pioneer who got his start in 1891 as a patient at the Kelloggs' Sanitarium was Charles W. Post (1854-1914). When Dr. Kellogg refused Post's offer to promote the Kellogg cereal coffee substitute, Post set up business in Battle Creek in 1895 and developed his own product, Postum Cereal Food Coffee. Postum was an instant success and is still on the market today. Two years later, Post introduced his first dry breakfast cereal, Grape-Nuts, baked in the form of bread sticks. The name came from Post's belief that grape sugar was formed during the baking, and from the cereal's nutty flavor. In 1904 Post came out with his own version of corn flakes, which he originally called Elijah's Manna. Vigorously attacked from the pulpit for blasphemy, Post quickly changed the cereal's name to Post Toasties. Post's business, which began in a little white barn, eventually grew into the giant General Foods Corporation, which merged with Kraft in 1989 to become the largest food company in the United States.
Inspired by the Kelloggs' and Post's successes, a breakfast-cereal rush took place in Battle Creek around the turn of the century. Dozens of factories sprang up, producing cereals like Tryabita, Strengtho, Corno, Malta Vita, and Maple-Flakes. Most did not last long. Those that did emulated the Post and Kellogg formula for success: intensive advertising and promotion. Breakfast cereal manufacture, which did not exist before the 1890s, is today a billion-dollar industry marketing over 100 different brands. As of 1998, it was estimated that 95 percent of American households purchase cold, ready-to-eat breakfast cereals. Hot, cooked cereals, such as oatmeal, cream of wheat, and grits, are popular as well. Most now come with microwave instructions for quick preparation, and many are sold in instant varieties.
Modern cold cereals are often made by a process that starts with cooking a mixture of grain, flavorings, and vitamins and minerals under steam pressure. The cooked mixture is then put in dryers until it reaches the desired moisture level. Next large flaking mills exert tons of pressure on the grain to flatten it into thin flakes. The flakes are toasted in ovens until they achieve the right color, flavor, and crispness. Finally the cereal is sprayed with more vitamins before being packaged in cartons lined with moisture-resistant material. Other cereals are exploded into puffs, shredded and formed into little biscuits, or extruded in fanciful shapes. In addition to flavorings and nutrients, cereal makers often add sugar, salt, and preservatives to their products. Some cereals also have extra ingredients such as nuts, raisins, and marshmallows.
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