Malt-O-Meal

 By Bruce Shawkey


One of my fave hot breakfast cereals is Malt-O-Meal. It was invented in 1919 by John Campbell. a miller in Owatonna, Minnesota. He invented a combination of farina wheat and malted barley. Campbell intended to compete with Cream of Wheat.

I like to make it extra thick and add brown sugar and pecans and/or raisins to make it a little more interesting.

There are different flavors of Malt-O-Meal, including chocolate and maple/brown sugar, but I like the original the best.

The company has, over the years, diversified into the cold cereal market and currently manufactures 30 brands, including Berry Bunch Crunch Berry Colossal Crunch,  Birthday Cake Dyno-Bites, Chocolate Marshmallow Mateys (features real cocoa in the cereal pieces with added marshmallow bits), and Cinnamon Toasters.

These are intended for kids and loaded with sugar and are of no interest to me. But it's interesting to note that Malt-O-Meal brands was sold in 2015 for $1.15 billion to the Post cereal company. That's a lot of Malt-O-Meal! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grandma's Recipe Box

Image
 By Bruce Shawkey We unearthed Grandma's recipe box yesterday. Many recipes written in her own handwriting, giving credit to the person she got the recipe from. Many other recipes clipped from newspapers.  Many times, quantity of ingredients are not not given, just a "pinch" of this or a "dash" of that. Very few spices, mostly cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Fairly typical of Norwegian cooking. Grandma did not cook Lutefisk. Thank God for that because it stinks to high heaven. I don't even think she ate it at church suppers, opting for meatballs instead! Recipes for Norwegian foods such as Rommegrot, Lefse,  Krumkake, etc. are not included as these were in Grandma's head and didn't require a written recipe. Curiously, there are many recipes for hot dishes and casseroles that I don't recall Grandma ever making. Many of her dishes were vegetables from the garden, a chicken, or chuck roast. Just solid food, nothing fancy. And of course all sorts
Read more

John "Ben" Bolerud, Mayor of Mineral Point

 By Bruce Shawkey This is a story illustrating how so many lives can intersect and what a small world it is. This is a story of my dad, a high school classmate of mine and his grandfather, and a former mayor of Mineral Point, a city in iowa County, Wisconsin. John "Ben" Bolerud was of Norwegian descent and was elected mayor of Mineral Point in the 1950s and '60s. He road around town on a mule, presumably because of the hilly terrain of this former lead mining town with a history dating back to the civil war (lead shot for rifles). This is how a local paper remembered him: Tuesday evening, Benjamin Bollerud, former Mineral Point mayor, area historian, and traveler passed away at his home on Meeker Street. Bollerud's death marks the end of an era. in Mineral Point history. Bollerud's colorful dress, speech, actions and style was of another era that some may remember but few have lived. This week, the Democrat-Tribune has gone back into previous issues to give our re
Read more

Raymond "Skip" Henderson

Image
 By Bruce Shawkey I met Raymond "Skip" Henderson about 1986. He was (and is) a watch collector. He lives in New Orleans, and scours the antique shops along Royal Avenue in search of treasures. He also combs the local garage sales and flea markets. One time, he found an old lamp and lampshade. He inquired as to its origin. He was told the shade was made from human skin and was an artifact of the Nazi persecution of the Jews. It was $35, and Skip decided to buy it.  He held on to it for about a year and then decided to get rid of it. Said Skip, "I mean, you take it out of the box, man, people do not want to be in the same room as this thing." Skip sent the shade to a friend in Brooklyn, Mark Jacobson, who writes for New York magazine. Jacobson paid $6,000 to have it tested at a leading genetics laboratory. The results confirmed every ones' suspicion. It was made from human skin.   The story ends there. Skip did not wish to have the lampshade returned to him. Skip
Read more