Corn flakes

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Corn flakes
Corn flakes
Place of originUnited States
Region or stateBattle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan
Created byJohn Harvey Kellogg (1894)
W.K. Kellogg
Main ingredientsMilled corn, sugar, malt flavoring
Variationsmultiple

Corn flakes, or cornflakes, are a popular breakfast cereal made by toasting flakes of corn. The cereal was first created by John Harvey Kellogg in 1894 as a food that he thought would be healthy for the patients of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan where he was superintendent. The breakfast cereal proved popular among the patients and the Kellogg Company (Kellogg's) was set up to produce corn flakes for the wider public. A patent for the process was granted in 1896.

With corn flakes becoming popular in the wider community, a previous patient at the sanitarium, C. W. Post, started to make rival products. Kellogg continued to experiment and various ingredients were added and different grains were used. In 1928, he started to manufacture Rice Krispies, another successful breakfast cereal.

There are many generic brands of corn flakes produced by various manufacturers. As well as being used as a breakfast cereal, the crushed flakes can be a substitute for bread crumbs in recipes and can be incorporated into many cooked dishes.

Description

Corn flakes are a packaged cereal product formed from small toasted flakes of corn, usually served cold with milk and sometimes sugar. Since their original production, the plain flakes of corn have been flavoured with salt, sugar and malt, and many successive products with additional ingredients have been manufactured such as sugar frosted flakes and honey & nut corn flakes.[1] Corn flakes are produced in significant quantities at the Trafford Park factory in Manchester, England, which is the largest cereal factory in the world.[2]

History

Advertisement for Kellogg's Toasted Corn Flakes from the July 21, 1910 issue of Life magazine.

The legend of corn flakes goes back to the late 19th century, when a team of Seventh-day Adventists began to develop new foods to adhere to the vegetarian diet recommended by the church. Members of the group experimented with a number of different grains, including wheat, oats, rice, barley and corn. In 1894, John Harvey Kellogg, the superintendent of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan and an Adventist, used these recipes as part of a strict vegetarian regimen for his patients, which also included no alcohol, tobacco or caffeine. The diet he imposed consisted entirely of bland foods. A follower of Sylvester Graham, the inventor of graham crackers and graham bread, Kellogg believed that spicy or sweet foods would increase passions.[3]

This idea for corn flakes began by accident when Kellogg and his younger brother, Will Keith Kellogg, left some cooked wheat to sit while they attended to some pressing matters at the sanitarium. When they returned, they found that the wheat had gone stale, but being on a strict budget, they decided to continue to process it by forcing it through rollers, hoping to obtain long sheets of the dough. To their surprise, what they found instead were flakes, which they toasted and served to their patients. This event occurred on August 8, 1894, and a patent for "Flaked Cereals and Process of Preparing Same" was filed on May 31, 1895, and issued on April 14, 1896.[4][5][6]

A newspaper advertisement for Kellogg's Toasted Corn Flakes in 1919.

Dr. Kellogg introduced Kellogg's Corn Flakes in hopes that it would reduce masturbation.[7][better source needed] In fact, Kellogg devoted much of his energy to discouraging sexual activity of any kind, and was an especially ardent critic of masturbation, which he believed could cause "cancer of the womb, urinary diseases, nocturnal emissions, impotence, epilepsy, insanity, and mental and physical debility" as well as "dimness of vision" and moral corruption.[8]

The flakes of grain, which the Kellogg brothers called granose, were a very popular food among the patients. The brothers then experimented with other flakes from other grains. In 1906, Will Keith Kellogg, who served as the business manager of the sanitarium, decided to try to mass-market the new food. At his new company, Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, he added sugar to the flakes to make them more palatable to a mass audience, but this caused a rift between his brother and him. In 1907, his same company ran an ad campaign which offered a free box of cereal to any woman who winked at her grocer.[9] To increase sales, in 1909 he added a special offer, the Funny Jungleland Moving Pictures Booklet, which was made available to anyone who bought two boxes of the cereal. This same premium was offered for 22 years. At the same time, Kellogg also began experimenting with new grain cereals to expand his product line. Rice Krispies, his next great hit, first went on sale in 1928.[10]

There have been many mascots of Kellogg's Cornflakes. The most popular one is a green rooster named Cornelius "Corny" Rooster, which has been the mascot since his debut. In early commercials, he would speak the catch phrase "Wake up, up, up to Kellogg's Cornflakes!" Dallas McKennon and Andy Devine voiced him. Later, he stopped talking and simply crowed.[citation needed] The concept of using a stylized cockerel originated from a suggestion by family friend Nansi Richards, a harpist from Wales and a Welsh language proponent. The Welsh word for cockerel is ceiliog (pronounced keyeleeog or in some dialects keelog).[11][12]

Similar cereals

A former patient of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, C. W. Post, started a rival company to create the other major brand of corn flakes in the United States, Post Toasties or Elijah's Manna. The Australian company Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing also manufactures their own brand of corn flakes called Skippy corn flakes. Many generic brands of corn flakes are produced by various manufacturers. In addition, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Morrisons, Asda Co-operative, etc. have brought out similar products based on cornflakes. A variety of corn flakes that is sold in the United Kingdom is one where honey and nuts have been added to the corn flakes, colloquially as "honey nut corn flakes" and as Crunchy Nut under the Kellogg's brand name.

In cooking

There are a wide variety of different recipes for dishes involving corn flakes and crushed corn flakes can even be a substitute for bread crumbs.

Honey joys are a popular party snack in Australia. They are made by mixing corn flakes with honey, butter and sugar and baking in patty cases or muffin cups.[13] A variant popular in the UK is chocolate corn flake cakes, made with corn flakes, dark chocolate, golden syrup and butter.[14]

Images

  • Corn flakes are usually served with cold milk (but it is sometimes warm or hot). Fruit is a popular addition. Sugar may be added to taste.
    Corn flakes are usually served with cold milk (but it is sometimes warm or hot). Fruit is a popular addition. Sugar may be added to taste.
  • Corn flakes are sweetened, flavored with peanut butter and covered in compound chocolate to create the Butterfinger candy bar (and imitations).
    Corn flakes are sweetened, flavored with peanut butter and covered in compound chocolate to create the Butterfinger candy bar (and imitations).
  • Quinoa "corn"flakes
    Quinoa "corn"flakes

See also

References

  1. ^ Robert B. Fast; Elwood F. Caldwell (2000). Breakfast Cereals, and how They are Made. American Association of Cereal Chemists. ISBN 978-1-891127-15-1.
  2. ^ "Kellogg's Fast Facts". Kellogg's. Archived from the original on December 4, 2010. Retrieved October 3, 2011. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ "Dr. John Harvey Kellogg". Archived from the original on July 12, 2007.
  4. ^ John Harvey Kellogg, U.S. Patent no. 558,393, Flaked Cereals and Process of Preparing Same, filed May 31, 1895, issued April 14, 1896.
  5. ^ "News of the Odd, John Harvey Kellogg Serves Corn Flakes at the San (March 7, 1897)". Archived from the original on March 15, 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ "Inventor of the Week: W.K Kellogg". mit.edu.
  7. ^ "What do cornflakes and masturbation have in common?..." Daily Mail.
  8. ^ "The Guy Who Invented Corn Flakes Was A Strange, Strange Man". Mental Floss. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  9. ^ "Food Facts and Trivia: Corn Flakes". foodreference.com. Retrieved September 9, 2015.
  10. ^ "100 Years of Cornflakes" (PDF). kaplanink.com.
  11. ^ "Why is there a Cockerel on the Kellog's Box (sic)". BBC Wales - History. BBC. Retrieved May 21, 2014.
  12. ^ Davies, Glyn. "Putting the 'Ceiliog' in Corn Flakes". A view from Rural Wales. Glyn Davies (Welsh Member of Parliament). Retrieved May 21, 2014.
  13. ^ "Honey joy recipe". Kelloggs. Retrieved May 17, 2015.
  14. ^ "Chocolate cornflake cakes recipe". BBC. Retrieved May 17, 2015.

External links

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