Tasting History with Max Miller
Published Jul 30, 2024A bowl of the original Corn Flakes made with only corn.
City/Region: Battle Creek, Michigan
Time Period: 1895Dr. John Kellogg was all about health, and when his brother, William (the financial brains of the operation), wanted to add sugar to the very bland original Corn Flakes, he flat out refused. Eventually, William bought the rights to Corn Flakes, changed the recipe, and the rest is history.
I don’t have the industrial rollers that the original recipe for Corn Flakes used, so I made a dough. The flakes turned out nice and crispy, but they are very bland. I would recommend using stone-ground cornmeal and adding some sugar and salt to make the whole process easier and the end product tastier.
Excerpt from Patent No. 558,393 [for] Flaked Cereals and Process of Preparing Same.
First. Soak the grain for some hours — say eight to twelve — in water at a temperature which is either between 40° and 60° Fahrenheit or 110° and 140° Fahrenheit, thus securing a preliminary digestion by aid of cerealin, a starch-digesting organic ferment contained in the hull of the grain or just beneath it. The temperature must be either so low or so high as to prevent actual fermentation while promoting the activity of the ferment. This digestion adds to the sweetness and flavor of the product.
Second. Cook the grain thoroughly. For this purpose it should be boiled in water for about an hour, and if steamed a longer time will be required. My process is distinctive in this step—that is to say, that the cooking is carried to the stage when all the starch is hydrated. If not thus thoroughly cooked, the product is unfit for digestion and practically worthless for immediate consumption.
Third. After steaming the grain is cooled and partially dried, then passed through cold rollers, from which it is removed by means of carefully-adjusted scrapers. The purpose of this process of rolling is to flatten the grain into extremely thin flakes in the shape of translucent films, whereby the bran covering (or the cellulose portions thereof) is disintegrated or broken into small particles, and the constituents of the grain are made readily accessible to the cooking process to which it is to be subsequently subjected and to the action of the digestive fluids when eaten.
Fourth. After rolling the compressed grain or flakes having been received upon suitable trays is subjected to a steaming process, whereby it is thoroughly cooked and is then baked or roasted in an oven until dry and crisp.
— John Harvey Kellogg. United States Patent Office, 1895
Ingredients
2 1/2 lbs (1 kg) whole dried large corn kernels, like the kind that would be used to make hominy
Water, enough to make a doughInstructions
- In a large bowl, cover the corn with water, then put it in the fridge to soak for about 12 hours.
- After the corn has soaked, drain it and add it to a large pot. Fill the pot with water so that it covers the corn (the kernels may float, but the idea is that you want plenty of water). Bring it to a boil, cover the pot, and boil for 1 hour, stirring occasionally to make sure that none of the corn is sticking to the bottom of the pot.
- After 1 hour or when the corn is nice and soft, drain it and spread it out onto a sheet pan to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C).
- Put the cooled corn into a food processor and process it until you have a coarse meal. Mine was quite a bit coarser than cornmeal and still had a few larger pieces in it.
- Transfer the coarse meal to a bowl and add water a bit at a time, mixing with your hands, until you get a dough that can be rolled out. This isn’t a very precise process and the consistency of the dough is up to you, but I think that the more water you add, the thinner you’ll be able to roll the dough out.
- Place the dough between two pieces of parchment paper and roll it out as thinly as possible. Move the dough and parchment to a baking sheet and remove the top piece of parchment paper.
- Bake for 15 minutes, or until it is nice and crispy. Take it out and let it cool, then break it up into flakes.
- Serve them forth plain or with milk.
December 4, 2024
The Disturbing Origins of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes
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