Bob's Red Mill Organic Creamy Wheat Hot Cereal, 24 oz

Creamy Wheat is Bob's Red Mill's farina: hard red wheat milled very fine, then simmered with water or milk into a smooth hot cereal. Farina is the category name, while Cream of Wheat is the brand most American households grew up calling it. This is the same style of breakfast cereal sold under its generic name, milled by a company better known for its oats and flours.

Cooked on the stovetop it thickens in a few minutes and comes out softer and finer than oatmeal, which is why it tends to be the breakfast that works for small children, for older relatives, and for anyone who never took to the chew of rolled oats.

Most people take it sweet, with brown sugar, honey, cinnamon or fruit stirred in. It also goes savory: cook it thicker, fold in cheese and crack an egg over the top, or let a batch set in a pan overnight and pan-fry the slices like polenta the next morning.