Breakfast cereal is available in a packaged dry form such as Alpen, or it can be made fresh. Most warm cereals can be classified as porridges, in that they consist of cereal grains which are soaked in hot water, cooked and/or boiled to soften them and make them palatable. Sweeteners, such as brown sugar, honey, or maple syrup, are often added either by the manufacturer, during cooking, or before eating. Porridge is especially popular in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and England. Porridge became important in Scotland due to the freezing winters. The Scottish people prefer porridge to be made with only water and
Breakfast cereal Oats Company made a candy-coated puffed cereal, a wheat-based product similar to Cracker Jack's candy-coated popcorn. Ranger Joe, the first pre-sweetened breakfast cereal, and little more than candy-coated puffed wheat or rice, was introduced in the US in 1939. After World War II, the big breakfast cereal companies—now including General Mills, who entered the market in 1924 with Wheaties—increasingly started to target children. The flour was refined to remove fiber, which at the time was considered to undermine digestion and absorption of nutrients, and sugar was added to improve the flavor for children. The new breakfast cereals began to look