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Cero Fruto
Place two ounces Cero Fruto in a clean tin, set in the oven to heat for five minutes, frequently tossing meanwhile. Remove, evenly divide into six saucers, and serve with cream or thick cold milk separately.
This is less a recipe than a serving direction for a branded breakfast flake, of the sort cookbooks of the 1900s printed to show a proprietary food to advantage. It works with any plain wheat or oat flake you can buy now.
- What Cero Fruto wasA proprietary flaked breakfast cereal, apparently wheat-based, of the early twentieth century; the details of its composition are not recoverable from the recipe. Any modern unsweetened wheat or spelt flake, or a plain rolled-oat flake, behaves the same way in a hot oven.
- The weight is the reliable measureTwo ounces is about 55 g. By volume that is roughly two cups of light flakes, but flake size varies enough that the volume figure is only a rough guide — weigh it if you can.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. A moderate oven — somewhere around 350F — should be enough to crisp and lightly colour flakes in the five minutes specified; watch them rather than trusting the dial.
- "A clean tin"A shallow baking tin or sheet pan, not a covered vessel. Spread the flakes in a single layer so they toast rather than steam.
- The tossing is the whole pointFlakes colour very fast and scorch at the edges. Follow the recipe and toss them frequently, taking the pan out while the colour is still light and uneven.
- YieldTwo ounces divided six ways is a third of an ounce each — a small portion in a saucer, not a bowl of cereal. For six modern breakfasts, reckon on 8 to 10 oz of flakes and toast them in two batches.
- Serving cold, separatelyThe cream or milk is passed at table rather than poured in the kitchen, so the flakes reach the eater still crisp. Serve the toasted flakes straight from the oven; they soften within minutes of standing.
Cero Fruto belongs to the flood of ready-to-eat flaked cereals that followed the commercial success of Battle Creek's wheat and corn flakes around the turn of the twentieth century, when many small companies sold pre-cooked grain in cartons on the strength of health claims and convenience. The name appears to be a coined pairing suggesting grain and fruit rather than any specific botanical thing, which is typical of the period's cereal branding. Its appearance in a general cookbook shows how quickly packaged breakfast foods were absorbed into the domestic canon: the compiler treats a carton of flakes much as a national dish, with a short direction for warming and a note on what to pass alongside.