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THE NEW YORK TIMES

FOOD |A SHORT HISTORY OF CEREAL

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 1. FOOD
    
    
    1.  RESTAURANT REVIEW: SEARCHING FOR SIGNS OF LYON AT DANIEL BOULUD’S LE
        GRATIN
    
    
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    19. WHAT TO COOK RIGHT NOW
    
    
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FOOD

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A SHORT HISTORY OF CEREAL

By KIM SEVERSON FEB. 22, 2016



Photo

Credit Frederic Hamilton/Hulton Archive, via Getty Images
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An American invention, breakfast cereal began as a digestive aid, acquired
religious overtones, became a sugary snack and now toggles between health food
and sweet indulgence. Throughout that history, it has mirrored changes in the
world beyond the breakfast table. Here are some highlights.

Continue reading the main story


RELATED COVERAGE


 * THE NEW FLAVOR OF OATMEAL: SAVORY


 * HOW TO MAKE YOGURT AT HOME


 * CODDLED EGGS IN ELEGANT GLASS VESSELS


 * WHY ‘NATURAL’ DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING ANYMORE


 * LONDON CAFE’S CEREAL, AT $5 A BOWL, SETS OFF WRATH


 * CEREAL, A TASTE OF NOSTALGIA, LOOKS FOR ITS NEXT CHAPTER

 1.  Photo
     
     John Harvey Kellogg Credit The New York Times
     Mid to Late 19th Century
     
     In 1863, James Caleb Jackson, a religiously conservative vegetarian who ran
     a medical sanitarium in western New York, created a breakfast cereal from
     graham flour dough that was dried and broken into shapes so hard they
     needed to be soaked in milk overnight. He called it granula. John Harvey
     Kellogg, a surgeon who ran a health spa in Michigan, later made a version
     and named it granola. Using the same idea, a former Kellogg patient, C.­W.
     Post, created Grape-Nuts, which would become the first popular product to
     offer a discount coupon.

 2.  Photo
     
     1900s
     
     Kellogg and his younger brother, Will Keith Kellogg, had figured out how to
     make a flaked cereal they called Corn Flakes. The younger Kellogg added
     sugar and began mass-marketing them, including the first in-box prize. Post
     developed a similar cereal called Elijah’s Manna, which he later renamed
     Post Toasties after religious groups protested.

 3.  Photo
     
     1910s
     
     The Quaker Oats Company, which had acquired a method of forcing rice grains
     to explode under pressure, began marketing Puffed Rice and Puffed Wheat as
     a breakthrough in food science, calling them the first “food shot from
     guns” and “the eighth wonder of the world.”

 4.  
 5.  Photo
     
     1920s
     
     A health clinician accidentally spilled a wheat bran mixture onto a hot
     stove, creating what would come to be called Wheaties. (Its famous slogan,
     “Breakfast of Champions,” would first appear on a billboard for a minor
     league baseball team in Minnesota in the 1930s.) Rice Krispies, with its
     characters Snap, Crackle and Pop, soon became a close rival.

 6.  Photo
     
     1930s
     
     The Ralston Purina company introduced an early version of Wheat Chex,
     calling it Shredded Ralston. It was intended to feed followers of
     Ralstonism, a strict, racist social movement that included a belief in
     controlling the minds of others. (The name Chex, a rice version and the
     first recipe for Chex Mix would not arrive until the 1950s. And yes, that’s
     Elizabeth Taylor on this ’50s box.)

 7.  Photo
     
     1940s
     
     Cheerios appeared as CheeriOats but were quickly renamed. (They would
     become the best-selling cereal in America, worth about $1 billion in sales
     in 2015. Honey Nut Cheerios, introduced by General Mills in 1979, is the
     brand’s most popular version.)

 8.  
 9.  Photo
     
     1950s
     
     After World War II, cereal consumption increased with the advent of the
     baby boom, and sugar became a selling point. Kellogg’s invented Frosted
     Flakes and its pitchman, Tony the Tiger, and a new era of television
     advertising began. (Tony shared mascot’s duty for the brand with other
     characters including Katy the Kangaroo, but they were later phased out.)

 10. Photo
     
     1960s
     
     Quisp, a pink-skinned alien in a green jumpsuit, became a madly popular
     character for the space age. He fought his rival, the miner Quake, in a
     series of commercials. Like Cap’n Crunch, another Quaker product from this
     decade, the cereals were essentially sweetened corn and oat dough
     formulated into different shapes. Quake was discontinued, but the
     saucer-shaped Quisp has been resuscitated periodically, and memorabilia
     remains in demand.

 11. Photo
     
     1970s
     
     The heyday of fruit-flavored and monster cereals filled children’s bowls
     with Count Chocula, Franken Berry and Boo Berry, General Mills products
     that still enjoy cultlike followings. Post’s Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa
     Pebbles were competitors in a decade when the Federal Trade Commission
     began taking a harder look at how cereal companies marketed their products
     to children, and when granola began its commercial comeback.

 12. 
 13. Photo
     
     1980s
     
     Co-branding cereal was the game. Mr. T had his own, made from sweetened
     corn and oats and shaped like a T. (In advertisements, he pitied the fool
     who didn’t eat it.) Donkey Kong, Smurf-Berry Crunch and Cabbage Patch Kids
     cereals also appeared, along with the California Raisins, the claymation
     quartet that promoted Post Raisin Bran.

 14. Photo
     
     1990s
     
     Puffins, a molasses-sweetened corn cereal with roots in a small Northern
     California natural foods bakery, debuted as organic food went mainstream
     and parents increasingly searched out more healthful cereals. Gorilla
     Munch, an organic cereal that is part of Nature’s Path EnviroKidz line,
     soon followed.

 15. Photo
     
     2000s
     
     The battle of the virtuous cereals was on. Kellogg’s acquired the Kashi
     line, just one sign of the exploding market for natural and organic foods.
     These cereals also became targets for consumers demanding more transparency
     in labeling and more products without genetically modified or artificial
     ingredients. The current decade has been all about labeling. Cereals
     started being promoted as free of genetically modified organisms and
     gluten, or as containing specific nutrients. Even cereals like Dora the
     Explorer started selling themselves as whole grain.

 16. 

Produced by Sara Bonisteel and Tiina Loite

 * Email
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 * THE NEW FLAVOR OF OATMEAL: SAVORY
   
   Jan. 19, 2018


 * HOW TO MAKE YOGURT AT HOME
   
   Jan. 19, 2018


 * CODDLED EGGS IN ELEGANT GLASS VESSELS
   
   Dec. 21, 2017


 * WHY ‘NATURAL’ DOESN’T MEAN ANYTHING ANYMORE
   
   Jan. 19, 2018


 * LONDON CAFE’S CEREAL, AT $5 A BOWL, SETS OFF WRATH
   
   Jan. 19, 2018


 * CEREAL, A TASTE OF NOSTALGIA, LOOKS FOR ITS NEXT CHAPTER
   
   Jan. 19, 2018

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