Shredded Wheat

Shredded wheat has made the journey from one man’s dream and mechanical genius to a staple on many people’s breakfast table, me included. The first idea to shred wheat came from an inventor named Henry D. Perkey, a devout vegetarian. His plan for the shredded wheat biscuit wasn’t just for breakfast, but an addition to meal plates smothered in mushrooms and other vegetables. His vision was to have the wheat biscuit an integral part of the sailors diet.

Today, most shredded wheat biscuits are eaten as common breakfast fare. The biscuits come in three sizes, the regular pillow-shaped, the mini, and the bite sized. Over the years, different companies sold the name and process to other companies. Many changed the name, but the basic recipe and production method have remained the same. Today, cereal companies have added a sugar glaze to the top of the smaller sizes in various flavors and colors, but the biscuit is unchanged.

I’ve said all of this to tell a story about my father, Carl Beck. Shredded wheat was one of the items on his breakfast list. My dad wasn’t a person to change habits easily. While watching television, an advertisement shot across the screen saying Nabisco shredded wheat contained no salt. This was a time when salt was a no-no and a contributing factor to high blood pressure. Even though we tried to correct my dad’s misconception of what he heard, he was sure that the company removed the salt from his favorite dish and would sprinkle salt on the biscuits before baptizing them in milk.

The milk I grew up on was raw milk from a neighboring farm. Raw milk is unpasteurized and sometimes the butterfat content and flavors varied, depending on which cow yielded the milk. I was very picky about the flavor. Sometimes when a cow would graze on a strong tasting plant, that flavor would pass through the cow and into the milk and I would complain. “There’s nothing wrong,” my dad would thunder, “Drink your milk.” He was bigger, stronger, and he was my dad. Reluctantly, the milk from my glass or cereal bowl would disappear.