Learn Something, Make Food: My Report On Granola & My Recipe For It

Be forewarned, I wondered about the origin of granola and ended up going down a heck of a rabbit hole…

MY REPORT ON GRANOLA

Our story of granola starts in prehistoric times

The history of granola is intertwined with oats, a wild grain that was probably first cultivated by the prehistoric inhabitants of Central Europe.

No one is certain about the origins of oats but all agree that once milled the resulting oatmeal, when cooked, is easy to digest, healthy, and economical. It is the basis for many breakfast dishes, then and now, most notably porridge.

Granola owes a debt of gratitude to oats.

Fast forward to the 19th century

In the late 1800s as the US population became more health conscious, Dr. James Caleb Jackson of the Our Home on the Hillside health spa of Danville, NY, developed a dry cereal that he called “granula.” It was the first processed breakfast cereal in the US.

Granula involved oatmeal and twice-baked zwieback mixed together. It was disparaging referred to as “wheat rocks” and was intended to be a healthy grain-based alternative to a breakfast of bacon and eggs.

At about the same time Dr. John Harvey Kellogg of the Battlecreek Sanitarium of Battlecreek, MI, learned about Dr. Jackson’s granula and stole the idea of it. Kellogg, more businessman than doctor from what I can tell, renamed his product “granola” to avoid a lawsuit by Dr. Jackson.

Continuing into the early 20th century

Even though recipes for granula existed, like the popular one by The Sisters of the Brethren Church, Kellogg’s name for the cereal became associated with the product.

Ironically one of Kellogg’s patients at his sanitarium, a Mr. Charles William Post, stole the idea of Kellogg’s granula/granola and created his own version if it called Grape-Nuts.

Meanwhile in Europe in the early 1900s a Swiss nutritionist Dr. Maximilian Bircher-Benner of a sanitarium in Zurich created a dry grain-based cereal [because apparently who wasn’t?].  He called it “muesli” and his recipe involved oats, nuts, and dried fruit.

Fast forward to the 1960s

Because of the hippie movement granola made a comeback in popularity. Cups of it were popular at Woodstock in 1969.

Sometimes referred to as Sunshine Happy Hippie Granola, this homemade granola was made from a recipe that in essence combined Jackson/Kellogg’s idea of “granula/granola” with Bircher-Benner’s idea of “muesli.”

The new hippie granola hit mainstream America in the early 70s. This reinvented crunchy granola was much sweeter than earlier recipes of granola. It was manufactured by many large food companies, advertised on TV, and became associated with healthy eating despite its high sugar content.

Sources

BREAKFAST DISHES Granula, a recipe by Sister Amanda Witmore, of McPherson, KS, found in The Inglenook Cookbook by The Sisters of the Brethren Church [1906]

Chapter 2, BREAKFAST A History by Heather Arndt Anderson

Charles William Post, Wikipedia

Granola, wordnik

Granola Girl, THE NIBBLE, The Webzine of Food Adventures

Granula, Wikipedia

Jackson Sanitarium, Dansville NY, via #ArtofAbandonment on YouTube

James Caleb Jackson, Inventor of Dry Breakfast Cereal, MENTAL FLOSS

John Harvey Kellogg, Britannica

Maximilian Bircher-Benner, History of the Bircher-Benner Clinik in Le Pont

Peace, Love And Granola: The Untold Story Of The Food Shortage At Woodstock, HUFFPOST

Sunshine Happy Hippie Granola, a recipe by Donna found in Woodstock- Preservation Archives [1969]

THE CEREALS, OR GRAINS., Science in the Kitchen: a scientific treatise by Ella Ervilla Kellogg [1893]

The Origin and History of Granola, CULINARY LORE, Food Science, History and much More!

The Process of How Oatmeal is Made, The Clinton Courier of Clinton, MS

THE SUGAR CONTENT OF GRANOLAS Jane Brody’s Nutrition Book [1980]

MY RECIPE FOR GRANOLA

2 Cups Old-Fashioned rolled oats

1/3 Cup olive oil

1/3 Cup maple syrup

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 Cup coarsely chopped blanched slivered almonds

1 Tablespoon sesame seeds

1/2 Cup dried cranberries &/or dried apricots

1/2 Cup flaked sweetened coconut

Preheat oven to 300ºF.

Scatter oats over a large rimmed greased baking sheet and toast for ten minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from oven.

In a saucepan on the stove top, combine oil and maple syrup then bring to a boil – cook for one minute. Remove from heat and add cinnamon, mixing throughly.

In a large bowl, combine almonds and sesame seeds, add toasted oats, then mix together. Pour the oil/syrup mixture into the bowl and mix thoroughly.

Spread mixture in a thin layer on the baking sheet and return to oven. Toast for 20 minutes, stirring often, until light brown.

Pour into a bowl, add coconut and cranberries &/or apricots, then mix.

Store in the refrigerator. Freezes well.

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In Which Ms. Bean Answers Mr. Monk’s Question + The Names Of Measuring Spoons & Cups

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“How many pinches in a dollop?”

We’ve been watching the TV show MONK at night.  It’s currently streaming on Amazon Prime.  The show is silliness wrapped around a mystery, so it’s light and entertaining.

Just what we like.

For anyone unfamiliar with the show, Mr. Monk is a detective who suffers from so many phobias & foibles that half the show is watching him freak out, while the other half of the show is observing how he solves a mystery, usually a murder.

In one episode, “Mr. Monk Goes To The Circus” [Season 2, Episode 4], while attempting to make a mug of cocoa Mr. Monk asks Sharona, his beleaguered assistant, the question shown at the top of this post.  It seems like it might be a rhetorical question, but in fact it is not.

There is an answer that I shall now tell you.

Ready? Here goes.

FIRST you need to know these two facts about measuring spoons:

a PINCH is 1/16th of a teaspoon

3 TEASPOONS is 1 tablespoon

PLUS you need to understand that:

a DOLLOP is 1 + 1/4th tablespoons

THEN you need to do the math:

Knowing that 16 pinches are 1 teaspoon and that 3 teaspoons make 1 tablespoon, I determined that 1 tablespoon is 48 pinches [16 x 3].

But what about the 1/4th of a tablespoon, you might be asking yourself?  Well that’s where it gets more complicated but I figured it out.

Remembering that 1 tablespoon equals 48 pinches, I was able to determine that one fourth of a tablespoon equals 12 pinches [48 ÷ 4].

Thus I added 12 to 48 and arrived at the answer:

60 pinches make a dollop

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• • •

 The Names Of Measuring Spoons & Cups

a DROP or a NIP is 1/64th of a teaspoon

a SMIDGEN or a SHAKE is 1/32nd of a teaspoon

a PINCH is 1/16th of a teaspoon

a DASH is 1/8th of a teaspoon

a TAD is 1/4th of a teaspoon

a HALF is 1/2th of a teaspoon

a DESSERTSPOON is 2 teaspoons

TABLESPOON is 3 teaspoons

a DOLLOP is 1 + 1/4th tablespoons

a WALNUT-SIZE is roughly 2 tablespoons

a SPLASH is less than a drizzle

a DRIZZLE is about 2 tablespoons

a GLUG is more than a drizzle

a HEN’S EGG is 3 to 4 tablespoons

a FISTFUL or a WINEGLASS is 1/4th of a cup

a HANDFUL or a TEACUP or a GILL is 1/2th of a cup

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Sources:

What’s the Difference Between a Pinch, a Dash and a Shake? via Taste of Home

How big is a dollop? via AnswersToAll

A Walnut-Size of Butter via Bygone Food and Recipes

A Glimpse Into The Time Before Morsels: A Recipe, A Realization, A Research Project

Maybe you know this already and I’m the last to know, but I’m going to tell you my story anyhow.

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I HAPPENED UPON A WRAPPER from a Nestlé Semi-Sweet chocolate product [see photo immediately above].

I found it among the recipes that my mother had saved, filed loosely in an old notebook. The recipes, ranging from the 1940s to the 1990s, are from her mother and newspapers clippings and friends and packaging. No rhyme or reason to them, just saved.

My best guess is the wrapper is from the early 1940s. It intrigued me.

After glancing at the front I looked on the back at the recipe. I skimmed the recipe and it initially looked about the same as any chocolate chip cookie recipe you’d see today.

The copy on the wrapper states that it’s THE ORIGINAL Toll House Chocolate Cookie recipe created by Ruth Wakefield of Whitman, MA. And it could be. However the current Nestlé website says that this recipe, a recipe that differs in one significant way, is the original Toll House Cookie Recipe.

You see, it wasn’t until I turned the package over again and looked closely at the front that I realized this WASN’T a package for Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate morsels [chips] that we have today. It WAS for a bar of chocolate that was to be cut into “pieces the size of a pea” by the person making the cookies.

As in if you want chips of chocolate in your cookies, do it yourself, darling [see photo immediately below].

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I HAD A DUH! MOMENT because I’d no idea that chocolate chips had not always existed, which is a rather lame thing to say. Obviously someone invented them. They don’t fall from the heavens above fully formed, now do they?

After a bit of research I discovered that chocolate chips were originally a kind of molasses chocolate-coated candy made popular in the early 1890s by Kauffmanns of Pittsburgh, PA. In 1897 a court case involving the use of the trademarked name “Trowbridge Chocolate Chips” also described chocolate chips as being molasses chocolate-coated candy.

However by the 1930s as Wakefield’s recipe grew in popularity the term *chocolate chip* morphed from being a kind of candy into being an ingredient in cookies, so much so that by the early 1940s Toll House cookies were often referred to as chocolate chip cookies.

Seeing an opportunity for increased sales, in 1940 Nestlé started making and selling manufactured chocolate chips that they called ‘morsels.’ This was in addition to the semi-sweet chocolate bars for which they were known.

So with that short history lesson on what I’d call the primary ingredient in Toll House Cookies, I’ll end this post by asking you:

Did you know there was a time when you created your own chocolate chips [aka morsels] to put in your cookies?

What do you call cookies that have chocolate chips [aka morsels] in them: Toll House Cookies or Chocolate Chip Cookies?

And more to the point, made any of them lately?

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SOURCES:

A Brief History of the Chocolate Chip via Mental Floss

Chocolate Chip Cookies Chip versus Morsel via New England Recipes

The First “Chocolate Chip” Was a Molasses Candy via Smithsonian Magazine

Who Baked the First Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie? via Chowhound

The One About Making No More Dough

I WANT YOU TO REALIZE, my gentle readers, that I understand what I’m going to say here is considered controversial in some circles.

I get it.

I’ve been told I’m wrong by many well-meaning people, but I don’t believe them.

Nope, I hang with Einstein on this one. Remember him? He is the genius who said: “Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.” 

Well, it’s with that quote in mind that I share with you my belief that IT IS OKAY TO GIVE UP.

Yes kids, I feel there are times and situations wherein sane, well-adjusted people just. give. up.

One needs to know why she is giving up AND how her life will change because of it. That’s important, of course. But in the end, some times the act of giving up is the best way to get on with your happy life.

• • •

To wit, one must accept the fact that to move forward one has to let go of behaviors and ideas that no longer serve one.

• • •

WHICH IN THIS PARTICULAR CASE would be the idea that I’ll ever be able to make homemade pizza crust that doesn’t taste like stale saltines AND doesn’t give me heartburn.

[I don’t know what it is about using those little packets of yeast, but I always end up chomping on some Tums after I eat anything bread-y I make with those little packets.]

Thus with the foregoing insight into my rational thinking abilities and my admission of pizza-making failures, I shall end this post by sharing a gussied up photo of perfectly wonderful commercially-purchased frozen pizza dough resting on a floured cutting board sitting on our kitchen counter.

This would be pizza dough that I have NOT made, vowing here and now before God and the blogosphere to never again attempt to make pizza dough from scratch.

I. Give. Up.

A Bug In My Beer: News & Nonsense From My Staycation

A pretend To-Do List I created on my remember the milk app to see how the app works. My conclusion? It’s easy to use & fun, too.

WE WENT ON vacation, or more accurately staycation, last week.

We stayed at home like we’ve been doing, but we called the week a staycation because Z-D didn’t go to work at the kitchen table, his office for the last 6 months– and probably many more.

Instead we did practical things like getting flu shots, and painting the mailbox post, and venturing into a Honey Baked Ham store to get a hambone with which to make soup, and taking things to Goodwill, and replacing the bedroom ceiling fan with a snazzy chandelier [more on that adventure later].

Good projects to a one, but not what I’d describe as vacation activities per se.  Still, like they say, make hay while the sun shines so we were productive.

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IN MY OPINION the highlight of our time at home was a bug dying in my beer.  I’d made myself a lager & lime with fresh lime juice, putting the beverage into a Pilsner glass because I was on vacation staycation and wanted to be fancy, darn it.

As I’m sure you realize when beer is poured onto lime juice bubbles happen, starting at the bottom of the glass around the lime juice itself then moving upward.  I’d taken my drink onto the deck where I planned to sit at our little table and pretend I was in an outdoor pub in England.

[Because if 2020 had unrolled the way I’d planned it, I’d have been in England at some point during the year.  On a real vacation.  But I digress…]

• • ✈️ • •

HOWEVER FATE INTERVENED in the form of a small bug that flew into my beverage, died, then began to float up and down inside the glass.  While I looked on it rode the bubbles from the bottom on the glass to the top, then sank back down to the bottom of the glass on what can only be described as its very own dead bug rollercoaster inside the glass.

Not pleased.

I tried to get the bug out of the glass with the corner of my paper cocktail napkin but it was too fast for me.

Yes, a dead bug was too fast for me.  

Eventually I went into the kitchen, got an iced tea spoon, and returned to the deck where I was able to scoop the dead bug out of my lager & lime which I then drank refusing to worry about buggy germs.

After all it’s 2020 the time of novel coronavirus– and there are worse things than bug germs attempting to harsh my buzz &/or kill me. ‘Ya know?

Keeping it all in perspective, I am.

[FYI: While I’ve enjoyed my Summer Hours I’ll be back to my regular weekly blogging schedule next week. With cooler autumn days ahead I’m feeling that it’ll be time for me to spill the beans here more often.  

I’ll be attempting to post mid-morning because that seems to work for me now that we’re at home all. the. time.  Plus I promise next week I’ll get back to commenting more often on your blogs. Mea culpa.]