Cerealine

Cerealine

American Hominy Co. advertisement for Toasted Cerealine Flake
Place of origin	United States
Region or state	Columbus, Indiana
Created by	James Vannoy circa 1884 or 1887
Main ingredients	Corn grits

Cerealine, also known as malt flakes, was a 19th century American cereal product and the first dry breakfast food in American retailing. Similar to but predating corn flakes, which appeared in 1898 and are first rolled and then toasted, cerealine is corn grits in the form of uncooked flakes. It was originally used by the brewing industry.

More popularly, Toasted Cerealine Flakes, colloquially called simply Cerealine, was also the brand name for raw-flake cereal made from grits by the Cerealine Manufacturing Company of Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, and its successor concern, the American Hominy Company.

Corn grits in the form of uncooked flakes, known as cerealine, was used for beer brewing as of at least the 19th century, with Aurora, Indiana's T. & J.W. Gaff & Co. distillery building the Cerealine Mill at 607 Jackson Street in Columbus, Indiana, in 1867. Their Cerealine Manufacturing Company moved to Indianapolis, Indiana sometime prior to 1898, though the Columbus mill's building remained extant and was restored in the late 20th or early 21st century for use as a cafeteria and conference center by the engine manufacturing corporation Cummins Inc. Prior to being annexed by Indianapolis in 1895, the settlement around what was then called the Cerealine Works was known as Cerealinetown.

White-corn cerealine flakes as a breakfast cereal were invented, perhaps accidentally, by Columbus, Indiana mill worker James Vannoy circa 1884 or 1887. Vannoy's 1902 obituary said he found through experimentation a way to run the milled grain through rollers so that it would come out "in thin layers or flakes. He went to his employer, Joseph F. Gent, with the discovery. Gent rather disregarded the wonderful discovery and told Vannoy that he had better been tending to his duties. Later, Gent had the discovery patented, and it was not long until Cerealine was on the market and was being sold in large quantities."