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Cream of Wheat

Do you like Cream of Wheat or Malt-O-Meal? Believe it or not, I had never had either. I’ve seen them in stores and Cream of Wheat always sounded really delicious but, as a child, when I would have learned to like it, we never had it.

Don’t ask me why things run through my head like they do but the other night a thought popped into my head . . could I make my own Cream of Wheat using wheat berries? A quick internet search and I had found that many people make their own so I grabbed a bit of hard white wheat, changed the mill setting to somewhere between medium and coarse .. just a bit closer to coarse, and I had a jar full of freshly milled farina.

I sifted it to get the smaller pieces out – mostly what sifted out was similar to something just a bit more coarse than regular flour. I’ll just add it to my next loaf of bread.

I add butter, Redmond’s Real Salt (Ancient fine seal salt is the variety I’m currently using) and a bit of Cajun Redhead seasoning. I think Vince likes this more than oatmeal.

It’s quick to fix, filling and tastes great. I’m glad I had that Cream of Wheat thought!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I had cream of wheat this morning! I made it the way my Mom used to do as a treat…I added a beaten egg and a splash of vanilla. (and then my normal teaspoon of brown sugar and blueberries). It tastes a lot like custard that way. Yum! (I go savory when I make grits–butter and pepper…)

  2. As a child, whenever we had hot cereal for breakfast, it was cream of wheat or oatmeal. I remember having the responsibility of watching & stirring the pot.

  3. Ick and Ick – LOL – I’m am not a hot cereal fan (nor cold cereal for that matter) but oatmeal, cream of wheat and even malt-o-meal I have never liked – I think it’s a texture thing. Plus when I was younger and had to eat it I put so much sugar on it, I’m sure it outweighed any benefits. But my Granny ate a huge bowl of cream of wheat every morning with milk and honey on it.

    • I’m not sure I’d want it every day but we are liking it. Seems like it’s one of those things people love or hate.

    • I’m the opposite (I guess – never had malt-o-meal) but I do not like malts or malted milk balls.

  5. I’m with justquiltin above–ick ick and ick. Hated having to eat cooked oatmeal as a child and I wouldn’t touch cream of wheat or malt-o-meal with a 10′ pole. Not then, not now. If my husband wants anything even remotely resembling that now, he cooks it himself.

  6. Malt-o-meal has always been a staple in my kitchen but none of our children learned to like it. I do! Oatmeal, eaten for breakfast some, but used more often for cookies which the boys did eat! I grew up with Cream of Wheat, loved it; now it will be on the next grocery list. I haven’t had it in years. I may even try it as mentioned above, can’t hurt anything but one serving!!

  7. I love all kinds of hot cereal; those mentioned plus oat bran and cream of rice. I can’t imagine adding Cajun seasoning, but then I’m a northerner. I use whole milk and brown sugar, and sometimes a little vanilla.

    • I’m one who believes rice should be served with gravy or gumbo and can’t imagine eating cream of rice or rice pudding. I cook it in whole milk with the cream but haven’t added any extra. I’ll try the vanilla with my white sugar – not a fan of brown sugar.

  8. I do love cream of wheat. We also let it set up and then sliced it into pieces and fried them with a bit of butter and ate it with syrup. yum

      • You can also fry oatmeal and my husband prefers it to cream of wheat.
        Growing up my Mother made cream of wheat for me and herself and oatmeal for Dad and my Brother,

  9. I grew up with Malt O’ Meal. I was surprised when I moved that I couldn’t find it. I don’t have it often now, but if you found a way to make it, I’d try it!

  10. I’ve eaten Cream of Wheat all my life, and the difference for me is that I’d never put butter on it! (Sorry, but that just sounds gross to me! 🙂 ) I always add about a teaspoon of sugar and a dash of milk. Love it! Haven’t had it for a few years now, but since you’ve mentioned it, it sounds like I need to go get some soon! 🙂 Thanks for the idea!!

    • Most of the recipes I saw said to add butter and sugar. I cook it in milk so I haven’t added any extra milk. Maybe I’ll leave off the butter and just have sugar and cream in it tomorrow.

  11. …Ick, Ick, Ick, Double Triple Ick. I love oatmeal but I will never ever again eat COW. Once when I was in the hospital, they served it every single morning with applesauce on top. OMG. It was so gross and they were trying so hard to get me to eat. (When I’m sick, I stop eating). Were they really serious????

    • Sheryl! You said COW and I’m sitting here trying to figure out what beef has to do with this conversation. Now I get it. I hope mine is better than the hospital’s but we do love it. I fixed it this morning and Vince has already asked for it again tomorrow.

  12. My mother was a firm believer in hot cereal. Cream of Wheat, Oatmeal and Malt-O -Meal. I got to where I hated them. I swore I’d never have them again and I haven’t.

    • We’re just the opposite. We never had those things growing up and I love oatmeal, grits and now Cream of Wheat. I wouldn’t like Malt-O-Meal because I don’t like malt.

  13. I had cream of wheat this morning for breakfast. I eat with fresh blueberries, banana and a dash of milk on it. When I was a child my mother served it with butter, cream and some sugar it was delicious. To many calories that way now. I also like grit with my breakfast but her in Connecticut no diners or breakfast places serve grits. I also like shrimp and grits, yum.

    • Can you buy grits in the grocery store there? I grind mine from dried dent corn but grits are pretty much a staple around here.

      • Yes I can and there is always a carton in my pantry. Cream of wheat is good with honey or real maple syrup on it instead of sugar to make it a little sweet.

  14. When I first moved to SD, you couldn’t find grits or several other foods anywhere (very pre Amazon). I decided that Cream of Wheat was the SD equivalent of grits and have used them to substitute in a number of things. I am not an overly sweet grain person. For breakfast, I like Cream of Wheat with butter, cheese, chopped apple, and sprinkle nuts or seeds on top. I have some “Cream of Sorghum” that I bought from a local farmer. It is a little different from the others, but it is good too. With oatmeal, I do use a little honey or maple syrup and a lot of fruit, but I want an oatmeal where the grain stays intact. What you said in another post about how you mill (or flake might be the term that you used) oats made a lot of sense to me. I have been looking at the oats closely when I cook different kinds and I think that how they are processed is the difference. My mother’s rice pudding was like bread pudding where you use leftover rice, add the same type of custard mix that you use for bread pudding, and bake until it is solid. So, it was not at all like the stove top type of rice pudding. So, there is more than one way to make pudding out of rice.

  15. Grew up on Cream of Wheat and Maypo. I don’t think my Mom liked oatmeal but we did get that at Grandma’s. Raised my family in Northfield, MN where they make Malt O Meal to this day although it is owned by Post now. Loved the days when they were making it. The other days that plant produced popcorn. Always good smells, miss it.

    • Much nicer than where I grew up. There were chemical plants and the smells weren’t always so nice. 🙁

  16. As a kid Malt O Meal was the only hot cereal I liked. My mom let me stir chocolate chips into it until they were melted, no milk or sugar added. Even better than that was Malt O Meal chilled in a drinking glass, sliced and fried.

  17. Cream of wheat messes with my allergies so when I can find it I eat cream of rice. We like oatmeal occasionally.

  18. I grew up on Cream of Wheat, Cream of Rice, Maypo and Cocoa Wheat. With just milk and sugar. We ate Old Fashioned Oats, no Quick Oats. Prepare for sticker shock at the grocery store

    • No sticker shock here. I make oatmeal from oat groats and we have plenty. I can make steel cut oats or old fashioned rolled oats from the oat groats. I paid $1.04 per pound for the oats that I last bought and probably quite a bit less for some of the others. Steel cut oats at Walmart right now are about $3/pound and old fashioned rolled oats are $2.16 per pound. Same with cream of wheat – I’ve been making it from hard white wheat. I just bought another bag yesterday and paid $1.02 per pound. Cream of Wheat at Walmart is now $2.58 per pound.

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