Hot cereals..Malt-o-Meal, Cream of Wheat, Oatmeal

[andiesenji]

Last night I cooked up a batch of my grain/seed mixture.

This morning I put some in a container and brought it to work with me.

I had intended to heat it with some milk (or half & half) but sadly, there was none in the refrigerator and will be none until one of the other employees comes in about 10.

However there was an unopened container of eggnog, sell-by date 01/10, still good.

To my one cup of cooked cereal I added 1/2 cup of eggnog, heated it in the microwave for 3 minutes. (Then had to wait more than 10 minutes to taste as it was now approximately the temp of molton lava, or seemed so to me )

It is delicious! I never thought of this combination before, but how appropriate.

I have topped unsweetened cereal with butter and a poached egg in the past, but this is something new and very , very good.

I must make a note to try this on some folks who love hot cereal and are always looking for new twists on an old subject.

I must add that it is a pudding-like consistency.

Edited January 6, 2005 by andiesenji (log)

[cakewalk]

Well, I finally made some of the steel cut oats I bought two months ago (McCann's)! Toasted them first, then into boiling water. Really another animal entirely than Quaker Oats. Different taste, different consistency, just plain different. And very, very good. I just wish they didn't take so long to make. Tonight I will try MelissaH's suggestion to let them hang out in boiled water over night, and then reheat in the morning. Many thanks.

[*Deborah*]

Oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, sometimes Shredded Wheat with boiling water and a bit of milk and sugar (those big yummy pillows of "Shred of Wheat" as I called it!) and then later when we moved to the US, my mum would make grits from time to time.

My cupboard is empty without oatmeal and Cream of Wheat! I eat it for supper sometimes too (benefit of the single life).

[Mabelline]

When I was a youngster--like 11 on-- it was my chore to get up in the early am and prepare hot mash for the horses in training and the rest of the family. Like *Deborah*'s post, I did have a favorite, and that was a couple shredded wheat 'bales' with boiling water poured on, then butter added. That was it. Cream of wheat was my alternative to grits with sausage and toast. Good oats-that's good stuff.

Here in Montana we have a local product called Cream of the West Roasted Seven-Grain Hot Cereal.GOOD STUFF, MAYNARD! " Ingredients: Hard red spring wheat, oats, barley, rye, triticale, soft white wheat, spelt, and extra wheat bran. No salt, sugar, or preservatives." Made in Billings since 1908.

Maybe I could have been more specific. The warm mash was for the horses. People type folks got oatmeal, CoW, or grits. I don't think my mom would've let us eat crimped oats with molasses and beer.

Edited March 19, 2005 by Mabelline (log)

[designchick88]

My parents used to give us Cream of Wheat on very cold days, with brown sugar and cream on top. I still eat it during the winter when it's cold and I am feeling the winter blahs. I have never tried making it in our rice cooker, I will have to investigate that - it sounds like a great idea!

[rooftop1000]

I must admit I never tasted Oatmeal until I was about 30.....Grits at about age 24 (while on vacation in FLA) had some today actually......What grandma gave me was Pastina with milk and butter then later on another pasta called Acini Pepe also with milk and butter....still eat this as often as possible. Sometimes now I make it like risotto cooked in chicken stock with a garlic clove tossed in...at the end I fish out the garlic and smoosh it back in and top with Parmigian cheese Mmmmmm

tracey

[bavila]

... When I was a kid, we'd dip some hominy out of the soaking barrel where it was soaking in lye and grind it on the grinding stone to make grits...finely if we were going to have it as cereal, or not so fine if the chicken had laid some eggs and we were going to have it that way....

mmmm...GRITS!!!! Just out of curiousity Jaymes what is "that way" of having grits that would be cut not so fine? How exactly were they served?

As a Louisiana native, I grew up with plenty of grits. Amazingly enough, my parents ate (and still eat) instant grits. Ick. I thought they were good at the time until I tasted the creamy comforting texture of slow-cooked grits. For anyone out there wary of grits, think of them as the low-brow cousin of polenta. They're great for breakfast. I like mine with a bit of butter, salt, and pepper. And I've been known to mix them up with scrambled eggs and eat it all with a spoon (this is when my husband calls me a campesino or peasant, to which I reply ). They're also great as a savory side done up any number of ways. (Here's a hint: if you're in low country and someone reccomends the shrimp and grits, get it. You won't be disappointed.)

I was pleasantly surprised to see a lengthy sidebar devoted to grits in a Moosewood cookbook (from Ithaca, New York), extolling the versatility and agreeability of grits. I think it was Moosewood Restaurant New Classics.

[emmapeel]

(Here's a hint: if you're in low country and someone reccomends the shrimp and grits, get it.  You won't be disappointed.)

As a person raised by a Southerner, my Mother cooked grits quite often, but I would have none of it (or pig's feet for that matter). I regret that now, (not the pied du cochon) but I've heard about this Shrimp and Grits dish recently and understand it's fantastic. Do you have a recipe or can you give me an idea of what the compents are?

[foodpsycho]

When I was a kid I ate Maypo for breakfast, tarted up with margerine (mom didn't buy butter) and milk.  I also got a piece of toast.

I eat Quaker instant oatmeal (Apple Cinnamon is my preferred flavor) almost every morning from October through March.  Blovie eats Quick Oats for breakfast most mornings.  We find that oatmeal is one of the most filling foods you can eat.

←

There was Instant Ralston and Regular Ralston. There was Cream of Wheat, Cream of Rice, Wheatena, Farina and Maypo. The thought of most of these still turns my stomach.

The only thing I could tolerate was Cream of Rice. Now I like Cream of Brown Rice and high quality oatmeal.

Kasha makes an interesting breakfast cereal if cooked in milk and reading here about Cream of Rye is very intriguing.

[creaky]

We were mainly a cold cereal family when growing up. Sometimes oatmeal or cream of wheat. I lived in the South (USA) for 8 years but never grew to like grits.

Now I eat quick oats with either chocolate or vanilla protein power added to it with a banana.

Christy

[Thanks for the Crepes]

I am dredging up this ancient thread, because I was reminded of Maltex. This hot cereal was favorably mentioned on page one by @Chris Amirault, but I have to respectfully agree to disagree. The company that originated had a long history in Burlington, Vermont, where I experienced it living nearby more rurally. Here's some more history on the building. The brand dates back to 1899, but alas, ownership has devolved to ConAgra at present. 

 

I found this article from the New York Times from 1978 very interesting. It has been carefully archived complete with typos for our current enjoyment, but is behind a paywall. I don't have a NYT subscription, but have been able to access it multiple times through Google search, so that is why the link is as you see.

 

Unfortunately, on those frozen arisings as a kid in Vermont in the 70's I dreaded the Maltex mornings and only choked it down under threat of dire punishment. It's not possible to articulate how much I abhorred this cereal. I'm glad to find out that at least my suffering supported a local company. Probably just me, because it seems to still be popular, and I also despised Cream of Wheat, and oatmeal until many years later, I found out about steel cut oats through eGullet. Weirdly. I've always adored white stone ground grits when they're cooked right, which is something I know how to do. I like them with butter and salt instead of sugar.

 

My reminder for this ancient memory comes from rereading Stephen King's "Hearts in Atlantis", which has only a very brief reference to it, and most of the links came up when I searched for "who hated Maltex?".  Still interesting, though, at least to me.

[Tri2Cook]

I grew up on hot cereals for breakfast. I enjoyed them and that daily routine for many years did nothing to cause me to dislike them. I still eat them to this day, though not every day. I'd never heard of Maltex until this thread but Cream of Wheat, Malt-o-Meal, oatmeal, grits and rice were in regular rotation through my entire childhood.

[Martin Fisher]

37 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

I grew up on hot cereals for breakfast.

 

Me too.

• Oatmeal was at the top of the list. I love oatmeal. It was popular on both sides of the family. At the family farm (paternal) they used to buy rolled oats in 50 lb. bags.
• Oat bran hot cereal
• Cream of Wheat (Farina)
• Cream of Buckwheat
• Cream of Rice
• Wheatena
• Malt-O-Meal
• Ralston
• Maltex
• Maypo
• Grits
• Cornmeal mush
• Hot Grape-Nuts
• Hot Shredded Wheat

[IowaDee]

I read the entire thread and didn't find any mention of the hot cereal my Nana used to make for me  Anyone else out there ever eat Zoom?

I can see the word spelled out on a slant so it looked as if it were zooming along across the box.  I liked it but that may have been because Nana was the best person in my life when I was a kid.  Anything she did for me was "perfect".

[chromedome]

An interesting thread...I went back to the beginning and read it all. 

 

I grew up in Nova Scotia, and hot cereal of various kinds was our usual cold-weather breakfast. My sister and I favored oatmeal (always rolled oats, then) while my mother preferred Cream of Wheat. We also had multi-grain Red River or Vita-B (nobody's mentioned the latter, so it might have been an Eastern Canadian thing) as a change of pace. My ex-wife grew up with lumpy Cream of Wheat, so I had to learn to make it for her with just the right size and number of lumps.

 

As an adult I discovered that I enjoyed steel-cut oats much more than rolled, so that's now my default breakfast year-round. My usual batch is one cup of oats to 4 cups of water, which gives me five mornings' breakfasts. I usually make it during the day, then glop it into a plastic container and refrigerate it after it cools. In the morning I microwave to reheat it while my toaster does its thing. A bowl of oatmeal and two small slices of homemade ww toast sees me through quite nicely until lunch (on those infrequent occasions when I have some variation of the Standard Egg Breakfast™ instead, I feel bloated for an hour or two and then ravenous for the rest of the morning). 

[lindag]

Ackkkkkkk!   How I detest hot cereals!

Growing up in the Midwest, with lots of snow and cold, Mom made us oatmeal or Cream of Wheat often in winter.  I really didn't like it although everyone else in the family did.

I know it's good, healthy food and through all these years I have many times tried again to make it and at least, if not enjoy, to tolerate it.  Still haven't.  I can make steel cut oats in my Zo rice maker that has a porridge setting and I can choke some of it down, but darned if I can like it.

[cakewalk]

1 hour ago, IowaDee said:

I read the entire thread and didn't find any mention of the hot cereal my Nana used to make for me  Anyone else out there ever eat Zoom?

I can see the word spelled out on a slant so it looked as if it were zooming along across the box.  I liked it but that may have been because Nana was the best person in my life when I was a kid.  Anything she did for me was "perfect".

Never heard of Zoom, sorry, but that was a lovely post.

[lindag]

2 hours ago, IowaDee said:

I read the entire thread and didn't find any mention of the hot cereal my Nana used to make for me  Anyone else out there ever eat Zoom?

I can see the word spelled out on a slant so it looked as if it were zooming along across the box.  I liked it but that may have been because Nana was the best person in my life when I was a kid.  Anything she did for me was "perfect".

I do remember Zoom cereal.  I don't think we ever had it at home but I remember seeing the box somewhere maybe in the stores or in a commercial somewhere.

[Shelby]

Ugh.  Malt-O-Meal.  It always smelled waaaaaay better than it tasted.

[kayb]

I ate a moderate amount of hot cereal growing up, and still occasionally indulge. As a child, it was Cream of Wheat or oatmeal or my personal favorite, buttered white rice with brown sugar. Oddly, for a Southerner, we never had grits at home, though we would at a restaurant. I remember MaltOMeal, but we rarely, if ever, had it.

 

I still have oatmeal, although now it's usually steel-cut oats, or rice for breakfast occasionally. And I dearly love champorado, Filipino chocolate rice. In fact, I should make some of that soon.

 

[Tri2Cook]

5 hours ago, chromedome said:

We also had multi-grain Red River

I was an adult before I discovered that one. I like it but it doesn't like me... and neither does anybody trapped in a room or car with me later that day.
 

1 hour ago, kayb said:

I still have oatmeal

Me too, and sometimes I go all-in with it. A bowl that will probably never appear in the eGullet breakfast thread, pretty it's not. But every now and then I cook some crumbled breakfast sausage, a piece of toast and an over easy egg or two and toss it all into a smallish bowl of buttered oatmeal (I break the toast into bite sized pieces first) , add salt and lots of pepper and munch. Does that confession mean I have to resign my eGullet membership? 

[Anna N]

20 minutes ago, Tri2Cook said:

I was an adult before I discovered that one. I like it but it doesn't like me... and neither does anybody trapped in a room or car with me later that day.
 

Me too, and sometimes I go all-in with it. A bowl that will probably never appear in the eGullet breakfast thread, pretty it's not. But every now and then I cook some crumbled breakfast sausage, a piece of toast and an over easy egg or two and toss it all into a smallish bowl of buttered oatmeal (I break the toast into bite sized pieces first) , add salt and lots of pepper and munch. Does that confession mean I have to resign my eGullet membership? 

Then I will have to resign also. It sounds much, much better than maple syrup and its ilk. 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

16 hours ago, Shelby said:

Ugh.  Malt-O-Meal.  It always smelled waaaaaay better than it tasted.

 

Malt-O-Meal is wannabe Maltex, and I don't like either one, but if that's what folks want to eat, go for it. Just please don't ask me to join in.

 

 

 

12 hours ago, kayb said:

Oddly, for a Southerner, we never had grits at home, though we would at a restaurant.

 

When we lived in Vermont, we had care packages of grits shipped by relatives from Louisiana. It was the only way to get them at the time. It's funny to recall Michael and Jane Stern's early writing about their first encounter with grits in the South. They wound up liking them.

 

I thought I was weird by wanting leftover rice many years ago with butter and salt for breakfast, and come to find out that congee or other rice configurations are a very common breakfast, just not in my corner of the world at the time.