The Best Way To Keep Cereal Crunchy Defies Conventional Wisdom
There are so many hot debates when it comes to consuming food, yet there is one topic that may cause serious discord in your community: how to prepare a bowl of cold breakfast cereal. Some may not even realize there's a question at all — they only know one way to get their day started with this stuff, and that's by filling a bowl with the cereal of their choice and then pouring milk on top. But the dissenting opinion is that this classic breakfast is better when made with the inverse process: milk first, then cereal.
The arguments for this cereal shake-up are varied, but chief among them is all about crunch factor. If you pour your milk over the top of your cereal, you're wetting most of the pieces in the bowl, which means by the time you get to the end, you're left with nothing but soggy bits. If you pour the milk first, however, you can eat from the bottom and mix in the top layer as you go. Alternatively, you can actually add cereal a little at a time, which helps ensure that every bite is crisp and satisfying down to the last spoonful.
More considerations for your cereal making
If that doesn't convince you to modify your cereal process, there are other points to consider. The milk-first crowd also emphasizes that their method means having better control over the liquid-to-solid ratio. When you go with cereal first, it's harder to tell how much milk you're pouring into the bowl. On the other hand, filling the bowl with milk first allows you to see the volume clearly, so you can more accurately dispense your desired amount of cereal and mix it up from there.
When it comes to whether the type of cereal makes a difference, there is a school of thought that some options will soak up milk more quickly (think smaller, sugary pieces like Fruity Pebbles), which may be preferable if you're going with the milk-first theory. That said, heartier cereals like Honey Bunches of Oats are less likely to get soggy fast, so they may be able to stand up to a bit more stewing in the liquid. If you're someone who loads up cereal to make a more well-rounded breakfast, that could affect the point at which you add milk as well, so it may be a case-by-case conclusion.
Of course, there's always the matter of personal preference — some enjoy a little sogginess, after all. So you can continue to debate whether or not cereal is actually soup, but whether you're opting for the nostalgic stuff or more grown-up, non-sugary breakfast cereal, deciding on your preparation is entirely personal.