The Oldest Breakfast Cereal In The World Was Barely Edible

Modern breakfast cereals are often crispy or puffy and packed with added sugars, but they weren't always this way. Rather than satisfying a child's sweet tooth, early breakfast cereals were often designed to aid digestion, and often had plain flavor profiles. But the very first breakfast cereal had one attribute that would be almost unrecognizable to the modern cereal market: It had to be soaked overnight.

Granula was the 1863 brainchild of James Caleb Jackson, an American doctor and spa owner who believed that illnesses were rooted in digestive issues, which meant that a proper diet could treat or cure numerous diseases. Jackson created Granula while experimenting with nutritious foods to serve at his spa, or in 1860's parlance, his sanitarium. 

The cereal was made of graham flour, which is a coarsely ground whole wheat flour also traditionally found in graham crackers. Jackson baked sheets of graham flour, which he then broke into smaller pieces and rebaked. Consumers would then need to soak a bowl of Granula in milk overnight for it to be edible for the next day's breakfast.

Granula's hard, unforgiving texture while dry meant that it was essentially inedible if not properly soaked in milk beforehand. Pre-soaking an otherwise ready-to-eat meal may be unusual today, but consumers in the 1860s were more familiar with the concept. Hardtack — a hard biscuit made of flour, water, and salt — was a common military ration during the then-ongoing U.S. Civil War. And much like Granula, hardtack also had to be soaked in liquid before it was edible. A quality that's seen as unpleasant to modern eaters would have been deemed useful at the time because it meant the food was easier to preserve and transport.

Despite a texture that's unappealing by modern standards, Granula was enough of a hit to spawn a high-powered knockoff. Prior to inventing Corn Flakes, one of the oldest cereals still on the market, fellow health nut John Harvey Kellogg was inspired by James Caleb Jackson's Granula and began making his own version. Kellogg, however, added oatmeal and cornmeal to the mix.

Jackson eventually took note of Kellogg's dupe and sued him for copying Granula. Attempting to head off other legal issues, Kellogg simply changed the name of his Granula knockoff to "Granola." The Kellogg version became so popular that now, granola is an entire category of snacks and breakfast cereals.