How the brand has survived for more than a century, I'll never know. Wheatena blows.I've been scouring the grocery stores looking for something which might fill the bill for Cooked Whole-wheat Cereal, and I was so happy to find Wheatena at Fry's. When I told my mother yesterday that I vaguely remembered one hot cereal she used to make that was absolutely atrocious, she said she thought it might have been Wheatena and my heart sank into the pit of my stomach. Here's my 1945 menu for breakfast this morning:
Apple Juice
Cooked Whole-wheat Cereal with Maple Sirup
The Maple Sirup is actually a substitute for Shaved Maple Sugar. I've checked several places looking for Maple Sugar - even some of those maple sugar candies shaped like maple leaves. Finally decided just to substitute the Maple Sirup. Was Maple Sugar available in large quantities in the '40s? Could you buy it in boxes like brown sugar and confectioner's sugar?
I tried so hard to jazz myself up as I was cooking the Wheatena. "Think of those golden sheaves of wheat, baking in the sun on the prairie." "Think of the nutty, roasty-toasty goodness of whole wheat." "Think of the yummy Maple Sirup on top." It was just as atrocious as I remembered. Tastes like eating a pile of chaff. And I had to floss a couple times just to get all the little bits of husk out of my teeth before leaving the house.
*sigh*
So, after all that trauma, I was looking around online for a picture of the Wheatena box and - come to find out - Wheatena is actually considered Cracked Wheat. Cracked Wheat Cereal is mentioned in another upcoming menu. The cookbook's author must have had an entirely different breakfast in mind when she described Cooked Whole-wheat Cereal. I wonder if she meant Ralston. I've seen lots of vintage ads for "Ralston Hot" which was 100% whole wheat. The world of hot cereals is still such a jungle to me. I'll bet a '40s housewife would have known right away what it meant when she saw references in a cookbook to Cracked Wheat Cereal, Cooked Whole-wheat Cereal, Cooked Wheat Cereal, and so on.
At any rate, it looks like I've got another bowl of Wheatena to look forward to in a few days. Am I missing some critical step in preparing it for the table? A dash of fairy dust or something? I followed the instructions on the box, and they're pretty simple: Bring water, salt, and Wheatena to a hard boil, then drop to low boil for four or five minutes.
Better keep the floss handy!
3 comments:
would a whole wheat cereal be something like weet-bix?
http://www.weetbix.com.au/
I used to have that for breakfast with warm milk and malt extract....
Maybe so. I saw a box in one of the grocery stores I visited last week and it looked pretty tasty (it's called Weetabix here in the US).
Wheatena, cracked wheat, bulgher, ralston purina: all variations of the same thing wheat berries ground to various degrees of coarseness. Never my favorite for breakfast, but palatable with fixings, cream, milk, butter,yoghurt (maybe not in the 40s in the US), and honey, maple sugar/syrup, molasses, brown or white sugar. Or, try with just salt and butter. You might like farina, or Cream of Wheat, better - it's white! Try with butter and sugar. Definitely 40s. Granulated maple sugar was available in shakers here in northern New England, perhaps not elsewhere.
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