Your Corn Flakes Aren't Made Out Of Sweet Corn — Here's What Makes Up The Cereal

You've probably had corn flakes at some point in your life, and perhaps even cooked with them, especially if you live in the Midwest. It's true that corn flakes have a rather sordid history, but they remain a breakfast staple throughout the United States. The lightly sweet cereal has earthy notes similar to those of creamed corn or corn on the cob, so you might assume that they have the same base component. Surprisingly, they don't. The latter dishes use something called sweet corn, which you've probably also heard of. However, corn flakes are made of something else entirely.

When making the perfect bowl of corn flakes, the cereal's journey starts with what's known as field corn. While both sweet corn and field corn are major crops in the Midwest, sweet corn is picked young while it's still juicy and tender. It's then used in frozen veggie bags, high-end cuisine, and canned pantry essentials. Field corn, on the other hand, is allowed to mature and then dried before being used for animal feed, ethanol, and even corn flakes. This may seem like an odd choice for cereal, but it's the go-to ingredient for a few very good reasons.

Keep in mind that most of the corn produced in the U.S. is field corn, and the vast majority of that will never show up on your plate. When harvested, field corn isn't immediately ready for human consumption. This massive crop tends to be used as feed for pigs, cows, and other livestock, because it's incredibly hard and keeps for a long time. That also makes it great for grinding into a powder.

Traditionally, to make corn flakes, the field corn was ground into a coarse meal called corn grits. The grits were then soaked, cooked, and dried out. They were mixed with other ingredients, pressed flat, and toasted into the crunchy, crispy bits of cereal you find on grocery store shelves. These days, the process is done with machines called extruders and industrial dryers, but the principle remains the same. Although the flakes do use a few sweeteners and nutritional enhancers, the number one ingredient is still milled corn.

While corn flakes likely won't rank as one of the best-tasting healthy cereals, that doesn't mean it can't be a flavorful ingredient. Field corn, because it's lost a lot of its juiciness, brings a certain toasty versatility that makes corn flakes work well as breadcrumbs, a casserole topping, or even in a sweet dessert. If you want to keep them as a straightforward cereal, you can dress them up with sliced bananas, a dollop of yogurt, blueberries, or a drizzle of honey. So, even though there's not a bit of sweet corn in your corn flakes, you can still enjoy them as a sweet first meal of the day.