The preparations of the various breakfast foods are a secret of the proprietors. The ready-to-eat brands are cooked, then they are either rolled or shredded, the shredding requiring special machinery to tear the steamed kernels; later they are dried, and, finally packed, sometimes in small biscuits. Many preparations are baked after being steamed, which turns them darker and makes them more crisp. Some preparations are steamed, then run through rollers, while still wet, and pressed into flakes or crackers. * * * * * =Oatmeals= are the most nutritious cereals. The oat contains more fat than other grains and a larger proportion of protein. It is, therefore, the best adapted to sustain life in the proportion of nutrient elements. On account of the fat, oats are especially well adapted for a breakfast food in winter. Another advantage oatmeal, or rolled oats, have as a breakfast food is in their laxative tendency, due to the coarse shell of the kernel. Oat breakfast foods keep longer than the foods made from wheat and rice. There are no malts, or any mixtures in the oat preparations. The difference between the various oatmeal breakfast foods is in their manner of preparation. They all contain the entire grain, with the exception of the husk. They are simply the ground or crushed oat. In preparing the oats before grinding, the outer hull is removed, the fuzzy coating of the berry itself is scoured off, the ends of the berry, particularly the end containing the germ, which is usually the place of deposit for insect eggs, is scoured, and the bitter tip end of the oat berry is likewise removed. _Rolled oats_ consist of the whole berry of the oat, ground into a coarse meal, either between millstones, or, in the case of the so called “steel cut” oatmeal, cut with sharp steel knives across the sections of the whole oat groat. _Quaker Oats_ consist of the whole groat, which, after steaming in order to soften, have been passed between hot steel rolls, somewhat like a mangle in a laundry, and crushed into large, thin, partially cooked flakes. The oats are then further cooked by an open pan drying process. This roasting process insures that all germ life is exterminated, renders the product capable of quicker preparation for the table and the roasting causes the oil cells to release their contents, thereby producing what is termed the “nut flavor,” which is not present in the old fashioned type of oat product. Both Rolled Oats and Quaker Oats are now partially cooked in their preparation but the starch cells must be thoroughly broken and they should be cooked at least forty-five minutes in a double boiler; or, a good way to prepare the porridge, is to bring it to the boiling point at night, let it stand covered over night and then cook it twenty to thirty minutes in the morning. Another method of cooking is to bring the porridge to the boiling point and then leave it in a fireless cooker over night.