The first cold breakfast cereal, Granula, was invented in the United States in 1863 by James Caleb Jackson, operator of Our Home on the Hillside which was later replaced by the Jackson Sanatorium in Dansville, New York.
Granula could be described as being a larger and tougher version of the somewhat similar later cereal Grape-Nuts. Granula however, consisted primarily of bran-rich Graham flour made into nugget shapes. The cereal had to be soaked overnight before it could be eaten.
The cereal never became popular, due to the inconvenient necessity of tenderizing the heavy bran and graham nuggets by soaking them overnight.
George H. Hoyt created Wheatena circa 1879, during an era when retailers would typically buy cereal (the most popular being cracked wheat, oatmeal, and cerealine) in barrel lots, and scoop it out to sell by the pound to customers. Hoyt, who had found a distinctive process of preparing wheat for cereal, sold his cereal in boxes, offering consumers a more sanitary and consumer-friendly option.
Battle Creek, Michigan
Packaged breakfast cereals were considerably more convenient than a product that had to be cooked and as a result of this convenience (and clever marketing), they became popular. Battle Creek, Michigan was a center both of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and of innovation in the ready-to-eat cereal industry. And indeed, the church had a substantial impact on the development of cereal goods through the person of John Harvey Kellogg
(1851–1943). Son of an Adventist factory owner in Battle Creek, Kellogg was encouraged by his church to train in medicine at Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York City in 1875. After graduating, he became medical superintendent at the Western Health Reform Institute in Battle Creek, established in 1866 by the Adventists to offer their natural remedies for illness. Many wealthy industrialists came to Kellogg's sanitarium for recuperation and rejuvenation. They were accustomed to breakfasts of ham, eggs, sausages, fried potatoes, hot biscuits, hotcakes, and coffee.
In Battle Creek they found fresh air, exercise, rest, "hydrotherapy", a strict vegetarian diet, and abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and tea. To supplement the center's vegetarian regimen, Kellogg experimented with granola. Soon afterwards he began to experiment with wheat, resulting in a lighter, flakier product. In 1891 he acquired a patent and then in 1895 he launched the Cornflakes brand, which overnight captured a national market. Soon there were forty rival manufacturers in the Battle Creek area. His brother William K. Kellogg (1860–1951) worked for him for many years until, in 1906, he broke away, bought the rights to Cornflakes, and set up the Kellogg Toasted Corn Flake Company. William Kellogg discarded the health food concept, opting for heavy advertising and commercial taste appeal. Later, his signature on every package became the company trademark.
The second major innovator in the cereal industry was Charles W. Post, a salesman who was admitted to Kellogg's sanitarium as a patient in the late 1800s. While there, he grew deeply impressed with their all-grain diet. Upon his release, he began experimenting with grain products, beginning with an all-grain coffee substitute called Postum. In 1898 he introduced Grape-nuts, the concentrated cereal with a nutty flavor (containing neither grapes nor nuts). Good business sense, determination, and powerful advertising produced a multimillion-dollar fortune for Post in a few years. After his death, his company acquired the Jell-O company in 1925, Baker's Chocolate in 1927, Maxwell House coffee in 1928, and Birdseye frozen foods in 1929. In 1929, the company changed its name to General Foods. In 1985, Philip Morris Tobacco Company bought General Foods for $5.6 billion and merged it with its Kraft division. Because of Kellogg and Post, the city of Battle Creek, Michigan is nicknamed the "Cereal Capital of the World".
Canada
Common hot cereals in parts of Canada include oatmeal, Cream of Wheat and Red River cereal. These hot cereals are typically served with maple syrup or brown sugar and milk or cream. Yogurt is also added to Red River cereal. Many Canadians also enjoy cereals similar to those in the United States market.
China
In China, porridges such as rice congee, or those made with other ingredients (including corn meal or millet) are often eaten for breakfast. Eating breakfast cereal has become more important in China and specifically Hong Kong, China due to the increase of work and decrease in time.
Congee or conjee -is a type of rice porridge or gruel popular in many Asian countries, especially East Asia. When eaten as plain rice congee, it is most often served with side dishes. When additional ingredients such as meat, fish, and flavorings are added while preparing the congee, it is most often served as a meal on its own, especially for persons who are ill. Names for congee are as varied as the style of its preparation. Despite its many variations, it is usually a thick porridge of rice largely disintegrated after prolonged cooking in water.
Greece
In Greece, cornmeal is poured into boiling milk to create a cereal of a thick consistency which is often served to young children. The cereal production in Greece has recently declined
Cornmeal is a meal (coarse flour) ground from dried maize (corn). It is a common staple food, and is ground to fine, medium, and coarse consistencies, but not as fine as wheat flour.
Ireland
Ireland is known for its oatmeal. The most famous variety of these is steel-cut oatmeal. Oatmeal is very popular in Ireland, and is a common breakfast there. It is one of Ireland's major culinary exports, and is widely available throughout the world. Major brands include McCann's. Ireland is also very big on its porridge. In the 19th and 20th century, the Irish people began to mix whiskey into porridge as a common cold remedy. Oatmeal and porridge have been very important to Ireland since the 19th century and even though they may have been cut back a little when they were introduced to potatoes, oatmeal and porridge is still highly incorporated into Irish diets.
Russia
In Russia, a breakfast is kasha, a porridge of buckwheat (Russian: гречка, grechka), farina (Russian: манка, manka), or other grains. Kasha is found throughout much of Eastern Europe, including Poland and Croatia. Russia does not value breakfast cereals as much as other places. Most instances of cereal consumption is due to the desire for weight loss.
The largest gross consumption per capita is in Russia, with 15 kg (33 lb) per year followed by Ukraine, with 12 kg (26 lb) per year. The share of buckwheat in the total consumption of cereals in Russia is 20%.
South Africa
Pap is a porridge used in a variety of meals eaten throughout the day. In the Afrikaans culture of descendants of Dutch farmers and French Huguenots, it is usually sprinkled with sugar and then eaten with milk; it can be made to a very stiff consistency so that it forms—what could be described as—a softish lumpy crumble (called krummel-pap) or a more creamy porridge consistency (called slap-pap). It is generally made from maize ("mielie") meal and is sold under various brand names. Taystee Wheat is made into a creamy wheat-based porridge. Porridge brands unique to South Africa include Jungle Oats and Bokomo Maltabella (made from malted sorghum). In other parts of Africa it is known as ugali, sadza, and banku or "makkau".
United Kingdom
Scotland is famous for its consumption of oats. In Northern Ireland, the company White's has been milling oats in Tandragee since 1841. England has incorporated porridge in their culture for centuries. Many of the different types of porridge were made specially for the royal family including a type of porridge called "pea porridge". This specific dish was made for King Richard II.
I had way to much fun with this blog post, I hope you enjoyed this odd but interesting article. Thanks for reading!
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