CEREALS AND FLOUR PASTE include the grain foods from cultivated grasses, containing every variety from oatmeal to maca roni, which is a paste made of wheat flour rich in gluten. Among them are most valuable foods,—rice, for in stance, which is the staff of life for certain nations. In what we call breakfast cereals we have a number of foods that are unusually rich in nitrogenous matter and mineral sub stances, therefore raaking an excellent morning meal with no further addi tion than milk or cream, for all ce reals are lacking in fat. Unless cereals can be subjected to the long, slow cooking which is necessary, they had better not be eaten, for nothing is so indigestible as half-raw oatmeal. Twenty years ago, when most of our oatmeal was the old fashioned steel-cut oats, it needed in terminable cooking—ten hours was none too long for it; to-day most of the cereals put up in packages, so the directions say, can be cooked in half an hour. That is not possible; few of them, except the fine-grained wheat foods, are fit to eat till they have had at least one hour's cooking in a double boiler. If they can have longer, they are so much the better. Always add the proper amount of salt to a cereal-1 teaspoonful to a quart of water—and let it dissolve before the grains are put in, so it will flavor the whole mass. The best way to cook any rough-grained ce real is to drop it slowly into water which is boiling briskly in the upper part of a double boiler. After cook
ing for a few minutes on the stove, set it over the water and allow the grains to swell slowly so the food is stiff enough to be chewed. Cornmeal demands a long time for cooking- at least six hours--and it swells so it should have six times the same meas urement of water. Granular cereals, farina, for instance, should be mixed with a little cold water and stirred smooth before being added to the nec essary amount of boiling water; this prevents it from becoming lumpy. Never stir any cereal after it has been put to cook, until just before it is turned out. This treatment makes oatmeal pasty and sticky. Store ce reals in glass cans with tight-fitting lids instead of the pasteboard boxes in which they are sold. It keeps them fresher and safe from th'e invasion of moths or mice.
Cereal with Fruit.
cupful wheat germ, cupful cold water, 2 cupfuls boiling water, 1 teaspoonful salt, I pound dateS, stoned and cut in pieces.
Mix cereal, salt, and cold water; add to boiling water in a saucepan. Boil five minutes, steam in double boiler thirty minutes; stir in dates, and serve with cream. Serve for breakfast or as a simple dessert.—