Monday, July 11, 2016

Shredded Wheat hack


[Advertisement from Life , March 27, 1944.]

For the past month or more, I’ve been a fool for Post Shredded Wheat. I’m sure there are eaters who place the “pillow-like biscuits” (as Wikipedia calls them) into their cereal bowls whole. Not me. I crush, which leads, always, to stray shreds on the tablecloth. But I have devised a hack:

Materials: two Shredded Wheat biscuits, one bowl, one one-gallon plastic bag, one free hand.

Directions: Place biscuits in bowl. Place bowl in bag. Crush biscuits. Remove bowl from bag. Store bag in cereal box for reuse.

Silk soymilk, a banana or blueberries (“other fruit,” as per the ad), and a teaspoon of sugar are useful accompaniments. Add after removing bowl from bag.

Related posts
Cereals in the hands of an angry blog
How to improve writing (no. 38) (fixing the Shredded Wheat box)

[Shredded Wheat has been a Post product since 1993.]

comments: 11

Berit said...

I LOVE large-pillow/classic shredded wheat. I usually break it down (in thirds or maybe smaller) and eat 1-1.5 biscuits. I also like it in French-style plain yogurt with honey.

Here is my Culinary Surprise "Menu", discovered on an occasion when no bread was in the house. One can use a knife to separate it into two long pieces (one will be a little more convex, the other rather concave.) They now function as nest-like fragile crackers, and are so good with natural almond butter (with S& Cracked Pepper or honey) or with several slices of Hass avocado fanned across the top and anointed with a squeeze of lemon juice plus the S&P. This is incredibly good! The sectioning operation and cracker structural integrity proceed as well as you want them to about 14/15 times. Thus, it does require a plate--no napkin-wrap shortcut option. I hope you try it with your next box if it sounds good. (Oh, and let me not forget that a bit of sharp cheddar stands alone as a great add-on!)

Michael Leddy said...

I think you have opened up a new world of Shredded Wheat for me, especially since I love avocados. (And we just bought a two-pound block of extra-sharp cheddar). I will conduct a lunchtime experiment, tomorrow if one of our avocados ripens. Thanks!

shallnot said...

I wonder if that should be "pillow-shaped" rather than "pillow-like"? How many attributes must a thing have before it can be said to be "like"?

The problem with crushing them is you can't then pre-soften with hot water before adding milk. Now, that makes them "pillow-like"---if you like soggy pillows that is.

Elaine said...

We were in agreement until the sugar/honey part. We add strawberries, blueberries, banana, and sometimes raspberries. Almond milk (plain) and there you are! The DHubby, who does the grocery shopping, buys the bite-sized pillows because he doesn't like the crushed larger 'classic' type because it gets soggy too quickly. I just go along for the ride.

Michael Leddy said...

@shallnot: I agree. There is very little that’s pillow-like about Shredded Wheat. “Pillow-shaped” makes better sense.

@Elaine: blueberries, strawberries, bananas . . . you have all the major food groups. :)

shallnot said...

I sometimes think that the four major Western food groups are: sugar & water, salt & oil, chocolate (that's a good thing), and pizaa.

The pizza food group is the most broadly defined: burgers, bagel & cream cheese, cinnamon toast, etc. are all pizza-like.

Michael Leddy said...

I sigh when I see the chain-restaurant pizza deals that include a dessert of more dough with cinnamon and sugar. Sigh.

Do you know the joke about Irish coffee? It has all the major food groups: caffeine, sugar, alcohol, fat.

Berit said...

Oh, I do hope you'll enjoy a savory new world of Shredded Wheat for lunch!

A two-pound block of extra sharp cheddar sounds like heaven! I don't think I've ever had the pleasure of owning one that big. Any thoughts on which makes are best? The type I like most is Cabot's in the black wax. The rest of the title and copy varies by retailer (I think they prep different pack-ups for reasons I'm not clear on), but they are all fantastic provided they come in a black wax-coated (usually one-pound) brick. The slim, plastic-wrapped $4 Cabots with their dozens of flavors and too-noisy printing are not worth eating.

Michael Leddy said...

We like Cabot extra sharp, which we insist on calling it Cabot Cove. The only way we can get it is in a two-pound block. We’ve had smaller packages of Cabot, which were very dry, not nearly as good. I’ve never seen Cabot in wax — maybe it’s just not distributed in downstate Illinois. The one we buy is in shiny black plastic. The smaller ones (eight ounces, I guess) are packaged in a papery material (a different plastic?).

shallnot said...

Shredded Wheat redux:

Instead of unthinkingly taking out two biscuits for my breakfast I read a bit of the label this morning. The ingredients: 100% whole grain wheat (blé entier à 100% on the French list) with some BHT “to help maintain product freshness". That’s to be expected. But in bold print under the list is the warning “CONTAINS WHEAT”.

This, to me, seems very lawerly. I like to think that those with celiac are bright enough to figure out what “Shredded Wheat” might be made of.

Steven

P.S. I like to joke that the second language of most English-speaking Canadians is cereal-box French—“bien agiter avant emploi”.

Michael Leddy said...

Yes, that’s lawyerly self-protection.