Preparing the Original 1895 Recipe For Corn Flakes

Max MillerofTasting History prepared the original corn flakes recipe as prescribed in 1895 by Dr. John Harvey Kellogg. As he was waiting for the finished product, Miller discussed the dubious practices that took place at Kellogg'sBattle Creek Sanitarium. The sanitarium was Kellogg's center for holistic health that encouraged sunbathing, hydrotherapy, yogurt enemas and eventually more extreme methods of purity.

One of the most famous names in the historyof breakfast is John Harvey Kellogg who made it his life's mission to heal the minds and bodies of Americaalbeit through some weird even sadistic practices ...but one of the more tame curatives he promotedand probably his most lasting legacywas the invention of Corn Flakes, the breakfast cereal which I'll attempt to make usinginstructions from the original patent.

Miller also talked about how his put-upon brother William Kellogg eventually took the reins of the company after the success of Corn Flakes, breaking away from his brother's influence, which was argued in court.

John claimed thathe was the first to use Kellogg for a cereal whichhe was, and he was the famous Kellogg he was thedoctor that everyone knew but William said that hehad basically turned Kelloggs into the country'sbiggest cereal producer and made the name ahousehold name synonymous with cereal, and after 10years the courts sided with him and so he changedthe company's name in 1922 to the Kellogg's Cereal Company.

The brothers never reconciled, as an apology letter from John to William was placed in a filing cabinet instead of being sent.

There was no reconciliationbecause the letter never got to William or atleast didn't get there right then because whileJohn dictated the letter it was his assistant whowrote it down. And she felt that it was beneathher employer's dignity to apologize in sucha manner, and so instead of sending the letter sheput it into a filing cabinet and there it sat for8 years long after John had died and they neverreally reconciled.

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