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So many breakfast foods are upon the market that it would be impossible to enumerate all of them, especially as new ones are appearing continually. Full and complete directions for cooking all of them are printed upon the packages in which they are sold. It may not be amiss to add, however, that in almost every instance, twice or three times the time allowed for cooking would improve the cereal in taste and digestibility.

The uncooked cereals are many. A wise housekeeper will use the uncooked cereals when she has no maid. “A word to the wise is unnecessary.”

Pleasing variety in the daily menu is secured by getting a different cereal each time. In this way, it takes about a year to get back to the beginning again, and there is no chance to tire of any of them.

Cereals should always be cooked in a double boiler; and soaking over night in the water in which they are to be cooked, where it is not possible to secure the necessary time for long cooking, will prove a distinct advantage. Leftover cereals should be covered with cold water immediately, in the double boiler, and kept in a cool place until the next day. Bring slowly to a boil, and cook as usual. In the hot weather, cereals may be cooked the day before using, moulded in custard-cups, and kept in the ice-box over night. They are very acceptable when served ice-cold, and, if moulded with fruit, or served with fruit on the same plate, so much the better.

Pearled wheat, pearled barley, and coarse hominy require five cupfuls of water to each cup of cereal, and need from four to six hours’ cooking. Coarse oatmeal and fine hominy must be cooked from four to six hours, but need only four cupfuls of water to each cup of cereal. Rolled wheat and rolled barley are cooked two hours in three times as much water as cereal; rice and rolled oats, with three times as much water, will cook in one hour. Farina, with six cupfuls of water to each cupful of cereal, also cooks in an hour; cerealine flakes cook in thirty minutes, equal parts of water and cereal being used.

Salt must be added just before cooking begins. All cereals are richer if a little milk is added to the water in which they are cooked.

To cook cereals in a double boiler, put the water into the inner kettle, the outer vessel being from half to two thirds full, and when it is boiling furiously, sprinkle in the cereal, a few grains at a time, and not so rapidly as to stop the boiling. When cereals are eaten cold, they require a little more liquid.