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Cereal with Fruit
¾ cup fine wheat breakfast food ¾ cup cold water 2 cups boiling water 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 lb. dates, stoned, and cut in pieces Mix cereal, salt, and cold water; add boiling water to cereal placed on front of range. Boil five minutes, steam in double boiler thirty minutes; stir in dates, and serve with cream. To serve for breakfast, or as a simple dessert.
A plain hot cereal enriched with dates, from the era when breakfast grains were cooked in two stages: a hard boil to gelatinize the starch, then a long steam over water to finish without scorching.
- "Fine wheat breakfast food"Most likely a finely milled wheat cereal of the farina type, of the sort sold today as Cream of Wheat or semolina farina. It is not whole wheat berries.
- ProportionsThe quantities as printed are three-quarters cup of cereal to three-quarters cup cold water plus two cups boiling water, which gives a fairly thick porridge -- probably about four servings, though the recipe states no yield. If your farina package specifies a ratio, follow it, since modern grinds vary.
- The cold-water slurryMixing the dry cereal with cold water before the boiling water goes in is the hinge of the method. It separates the grains so they hydrate evenly instead of seizing into lumps the moment they hit heat.
- The double boilerThe long steam finished the grain gently in the pot without scorching. Modern quick-cooking farina is done in two to five minutes of direct simmering. Taste for grittiness rather than watching the clock.
- DatesA half pound of pitted dates is roughly a cup and a half chopped, which makes this quite sweet with no added sugar. Stir them in at the end as directed, since prolonged cooking dissolves them into the porridge.
- ServingProbably about four portions at breakfast, though the recipe gives no yield. As written it is simply served with cream; nothing in the text calls for molding or chilling.
The cereal chapter, generally attributed to Fannie Farmer on the strength of its style, reflects a moment when American breakfast was being reorganized around cooked grains, promoted by physicians and food reformers as more wholesome than the fried meats and pies of the earlier nineteenth century. Packaged "breakfast foods" were new commercial products, and cookbooks of the 1890s and 1900s gave lengthy instruction on their preparation, down to the double boiler and the long steam. Dates arrived in quantity from North Africa and the Persian Gulf through late-century import trade, which is why they turn up so often in Boston Cooking School puddings and breads. The closing line, offering the same pan for breakfast or dessert, is characteristic of the book's economy: one preparation, two meals.