That so cheap and easy a food to prepare as cereals should so often be
unappetizing, and even indigestible, because of poor cooking, is partly
due to ignorance of the great improvement in flavour which long cooking
gives them, and partly to the difficulties attending such long cooking.
No one wants to rise two hours before breakfast to cook a cereal which
is advertised on the package to cook in ten minutes or less, and those
who do not have coal fires burning through the night are somewhat at a
loss to know how to keep cereals cooking over night. The fireless cooker
seems to fill a long-felt want in this direction. At the cost of a
fraction of a cent for fuel it accomplishes an all-night cooking without
danger of scorching, boiling dry, or needing to be stirred. The
fallacious idea that boiling temperature is necessary for cooking
starches and starchy foods has been proved false. As a matter of fact, a
temperature of 167 degrees Fahrenheit is sufficient for the starch
grains of some cereals, while long-continued cooking at much below
boiling point will serve to soften and rupture the woody fibre which
surrounds and entangles the starch and other nutrients. The nitrogenous
or tissue-forming substance is probably rendered less easily digestible
by boiling, and is perfectly cooked at a temperature which will cook the
starches. Merely reaching these temperatures for a short time is not
sufficient, however, to produce well-cooked cereals. A further change
affecting the flavour, and perhaps the digestibility, is accomplished by
long cooking.
The length of time required depends upon the amount and character of the
woody fibre, whether the grains are left whole or ground fine, and the
degree of cooking they may have had in the course of manufacture. Rolled
oats and wheat are steamed to some extent, and do not, therefore,
require as much cooking as whole or cracked wheat and oats. Preparations
of corn, having more woody fibre than any of the other cereals, will,
unless cooked during manufacture, require more cooking than equally
finely ground preparations from other cereals. Rice requires the least
cooking of all, as it contains the least woody fibre.