Shredded Wheat Is Here to Stay

How many ways can you think of to eat shredded wheat biscuits? Apparently there were "two dozen ways of preparing them" in 1896, according to an ad in the Daily Item. Just four years later, public demonstrations using shredded wheat mentioned a recipe book with 262 recipes. Newspapers ran snarky ads decrying the manufactured necessity for shredded wheat and other breakfast cereals. Despite the push back, shredded wheat was here to stay - at least as a breakfast cereal. But how did it arrive?

Shredded Wheat Biscuit with Apricots and Cream, from More Light.

Shredded wheat was the invention of Henry Perky. The story goes that he met another person over shared digestion woes around 1890, and learned this person's trick of eating boiled wheat with cream. After connecting with machinist William H. Ford, they developed a machine to process wheat into "little whole wheat mattresses" to facilitate the ease of eating the wheat. 

After exhibiting his biscuits at the 1893 Colombian Exposition, he discovered his initial plan to sell the machines was a bust, but the biscuits were a hit.

Like the more well-known breakfast cereal entrepreneurs John Harvey Kellogg and Charles William Post, the promotional materials for shredded wheat lean heavily on the idea of food fads and all-natural eating to promote health. In The Vital Question, a promotional booklet by The Natural Food Company (Perky's business), he states: 

Man  is  paying  the  penalty for  violating  Nature's  inexorable  laws, and  the  suffering  is  indescribably  appalling,  and with  a  ratio  of  increase  that  beggars  description.

Of course, the patronizing tone continues, as he describes how women have to choose the food for the family but are unprepared for the task:

Does the mother understand the requirements of the human structure? Not one in a hundred thousand, and yet she is compelled to and does select the material (food), without reference to its being proper. And here is where the trouble begins.

and

 If you eat improper food you must suffer — there is no escape.

Yikes. Of course, now that he has terrified you and convinced you all other foods are inferior, he can sell the poor, ignorant mothers shredded wheat biscuits to preserve their children's' lives. (The snarkiness in the newspaper ads for manufactured need makes much more sense in this light!)

Undoubtedly, the shredded wheat recipe booklets and demonstrations were part of the sales tactic to inflate demand for the product. Still, it's hard to conceive of 262 unique uses for shredded wheat; while some recipe books exist online, a full collection of dishes does not appear to be easily accessible, possibly limited to printings between 1899 and 1901. (Apparently in 1902, the number of recipes in the complete edition dropped to 261.) 

 For your curiosity, here are some choice dishes beyond the standard breakfast fare "with milk and cream" or paired with fruit and eggs:

A partial recipe was included in the Daily Item for "iced cereal coffee. Don’t put the ice in the coffee, but stand the vessel containing it on ice."

In 1897, the Roanoke Times says to eat shredded wheat with your "Burnham's Clam Chowder" instead of crackers.

The Culpeper Exponent (by way of Good Housekeeping) suggests eating sausages and celery on shredded wheat biscuits. A full recipe is available here.

The Norfolk Dispatch gives the full instructions for Shredded Wheat Cheese Balls in 1899: 

Half cup (scant) of grated dairy cheese, one-third cup shredded wheat biscuit, rolled very fine, whites of two eggs, beaten light; add a saltspoon of salt and a light dusting of paprika; mix and form into balls and roll lightly in sifted shredded wheat biscuit crumbs and fry in hot fat.

Public Ledger, November 2, 1900

In addition to The Vital Question, the booklets More Light and For Serving Shredded Wheat also contain some select recipes. Check out these time capsules of the early 1900 if you want a culinary adventure into puddings or fish balls. And if you can't get enough of shredded wheat, there's a website for that - check out their cookbook collection for more modern titles!

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