.jpg) A bowl of granola served with yogurt and fruit | |
| Type | Cereals |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | United States |
| Main ingredients | Rolled oats,nuts,seeds,honey or othersweeteners |
Granola is a food consisting ofrolled oats,nuts,seeds,honey or othersweeteners such asbrown sugar, and sometimespuffed rice, that is usuallybaked until crisp, toasted and golden brown. The mixture is stirred while baking to avoid burning and to maintain a loosebreakfast cereal consistency.Dried fruit, such asraisins anddates, andconfections such aschocolate are sometimes added. Granola is often eaten in combination withyogurt, honey, fresh fruit (such asbananas,strawberries orblueberries),milk or other forms ofcereal. It also serves as a topping for variouspastries,desserts orice cream.Muesli is similar to granola, except that it is traditionally neither sweetened nor baked.
Granola is sometimes taken whenhiking,camping, orbackpacking because it isnutritious, lightweight, high incalories, and easy to store (properties that make it similar totrail mix and muesli). Manufacturers also add honey,corn syrup, ormaple syrup to it and compress it into granola bars, which make it easy to carry forpacked lunches, hiking, or other outdoor activities.
Granula was invented inDansville, New York, by Dr.James Caleb Jackson at theJackson Sanitarium in 1863.[1] The Jackson Sanitarium was a prominenthealth spa that operated into the early 20th century on the hillside overlooking Dansville. It was also known as Our Home on the Hillside; thus the company formed to sell Jackson's cereal was known as the Our Home Granula Company. Granula was composed ofGraham flour and was similar to an oversized form ofGrape-Nuts. A similar cereal was developed byJohn Harvey Kellogg. It was also initially known as Granula, but the name was changed to Granola to avoid legal problems with Jackson.[2]
The food and name were revived in the 1960s, and fruits and nuts were added to it to make it ahealth food that was popular with the health and nature-orientedhippie movement. Due to this connection, the descriptors "granola" and "crunchy-granola" have entered colloquial use as a way to label people and things associated with the movement.[3]
Another major promoter was Layton Gentry, profiled inTime as "Johnny Granola-Seed".[4] In 1964, Gentry sold the rights to a granola recipe using oats, which he claimed to have invented himself, to Sovex Natural Foods for $3,000. The company was founded in 1953 inHolly, Michigan by the Hurlinger family with the main purpose of producing a concentrated paste of brewersyeast andsoy sauce known as "Sovex". Earlier in 1964, it had been bought by John Goodbrad and moved toCollegedale, Tennessee. In 1967, Gentry bought back the rights for west of theRockies for $1,500 and then sold the west coast rights to Wayne Schlotthauer of Lassen Foods inChico, California, for $18,000.[4] Lassen was founded from a health food bakery run by Schlotthauer's father-in-law.[5]
In 1969, duringWoodstock,Lisa Law asked the festival organizers for $3,000 to buy, inNew York City,rolled oats,bulgar wheat,wheat germ,dried apricots,currants,almonds,soy sauce, andhoney to makemuesli. Volunteers fed circa 130,000 people withDixie cups.[6][7][8][9][10][11]
In 1972, an executive atPet Milk,St. Louis, Missouri, introduced Heartland Natural Cereal, the first major commercial granola.[5] At almost the same time, theQuaker Oats Company introduced Quaker 100% Natural Granola. Quaker was threatened with legal action by Gentry, and they subsequently changed the name of their product toHarvest Crunch. Within a year,Kellogg's had introduced its "Country Morning" granola cereal andGeneral Mills had introduced its "Nature Valley".[12] In 1974, McKee Baking (laterMcKee Foods), makers ofLittle Debbie snack cakes, purchased Sovex. In 1998, the company also acquired the Heartland brand and moved its manufacturing to Collegedale. In 2004, Sovex's name was changed to "Blue Planet Foods".[13][14][15]
Granola bars (ormuesli bars) have become[when?] popular as a snack, similar to the traditionalflapjack familiar in theBritish Isles andNewfoundland. Granola bars consist of granola mixed withhoney or other sweetenedsyrup, pressed and baked into a bar shape, resulting in the production of a more convenient snack. The product is most popular in the United States,[16] Canada, Australia,New Zealand, the United Kingdom, parts ofsouthern Europe,Brazil,Israel,South Africa, andJapan.
Matzo granola is a breakfast food eaten by someJewish people during the holiday ofPassover. It consists of broken upmatzo pieces in place of oats. Many variations are possible by adding other ingredients.[17][18][19]
The namesGranula andGranola were registeredtrademarks in the late 19th century United States for foods consisting of sweetenedwhole grain products crumbled and then baked until crisp.[citation needed] The name is now a trademark only in Australia and New Zealand.[citation needed] However, the use of the term granola in Australia was clarified in 2012 whenSanitarium Health foods alleged trademark infringement by the word's usage on the product labels of Irrewarra sourdough. TheFederal Court of Australia concluded that use of the word granola had become commonplace and could not infringe Sanitarium's right to the term when used to describe the product itself, rather than as a trademark.[20][better source needed]
