corny corny flakes

              The invention of corn flakes

Hey friends, have you ever wondered what is a healthy and tasty breakfast. Yes, you are right cornflakes. Have you ever wondered how were our favourite cornflakes invented? So let's visit the world of cornflakes today.

Did you know earlier Americans would eat very heavy and oily for breakfast they would eat absolutely anything which led to a whole country of people with upset stomachs and acidity which made some people want to try a healthier breakfast?

One such person was the superintendent of our health spa in Michigan called the Battle Creek Sanitarium and a health fanatic himself Dr. John Harvey Kellogg along with his brother Will Keith Kellogg wanted to make a healthy breakfast meal for their countrymen.

So in 1887 they did this by mix mixing cornmeal and oatmeal into a dough then added nuts and baked them into biscuits by passing them under a roller. These were then crumbled up into little pieces and were served as a new healthy food.

             

The brothers called it Granula. They used this as a healthy meal at their spa but it was totally bland however this was named similar to another product of the same name created by James Caleb Jackson back in 1863 so to avoid being sued they changed the name to Granola instead.

All was going well for the brothers after that. Then one day while in the middle of heating wheat to make crackers they were called away on some urgent business when they came back the wheat dough had been heated and then cooled to a crisp.

They still carried on with the process though and put it through and put it through the roller they expected a big sheet of dough as usual but to their surprise when they flatten the dough it broke into separate flakes this they thought was even a better idea and the people at the spa loved them.                

So the Kellogg brothers started experimenting with different kinds of grain to find out what else could work. Until 1898 they tried this process with corn and were delighted at the results as were all the patrons at the spa and this is how cornflakes were invented.

However, this is where the brothers had a disagreement. Shaun felt that the flakes were great as it is and like all his other healthy foods cornflakes were also bland and tasteless. 

Will, on the other hand, knowing that they weren't the only people selling cereal like cornflakes felt that if they added sugar to it they would taste better and sell more but John would have none of it.

He didn't want something he thought so unhealthy to his creation and the cornflakes were left untouched for a long time. After selling their foods together for a while Will Kellogg finally separated from his brother in 1906 bought the rights of the cornflakes from him and started his own company The Battle Creek toasted Cornflakes company.

Here he started mass-selling his own sugar-coated cornflakes which instantly became a huge hit. After a long legal battle over the Kellogg name Will won the writes to use their own name and his company became the Kellogg's Cereal Company we know today. That is how cornflakes became the breakfast cereal of today.

 

                              FUN FACTS

The word cereal comes from an ancient Greek word Cerealia major festival celebrating series the Goddess of Agriculture. Astronauts ate Kellogg's Cornflakes aboard Apollo 11 the spacecraft.    

        

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