Cracker (food)

Cracker (food)
Water biscuit crackers plain and as part of a snack in Singapore, with herring and garlic cream topping and a parsley garnish
Reproduction of 19th century hardtack, in the Army (square) and Navy (round) styles
Beaten biscuits are another relative of crackers

A cracker is a baked good commonly made from grain flour dough and typically made in quantity in various hand-sized or smaller shapes. Flavorings or seasonings, such as salt, herbs, seeds, and/or cheese, may be added to the dough or sprinkled on top before baking. Crackers are a nutritious and ready to eat way to use a staple food or cereal grain that is advantageous for storage and travel. A precedent for the modern cracker can be found in nautical ship biscuits, military hardtack, and sacramental bread. Ancestors of the cracker can be found in ancient flatbreads, such as lavash, pita, matzo, flatbrød, and crisp bread. Asian analogues include chapati and senbei.

Contents

History

Crackers are said to have been invented in 1792 when John Pearson of Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA made a pilot-like bread product from just flour and water that he called Pearson's Pilot Bread. An immediate success with sailors because of its shelf life, it also became known as hardtack or sea biscuit. This was the first cracker bakery in the United States, and produced crackers for more than a century.[1] Crown Pilot Crackers from the same recipe were made and sold in New England up until early 2008, and used in traditional clam chowder recipes.

But the real revolutionary moment in the life of the cracker came in 1801 when another Massachusetts baker, Josiah Bent, burned a batch of biscuits in his brick oven. The crackling noise that emanated from the singed biscuits inspired the name - crackers - and a bit of ingenuity, as Bent set out to convince the world of the product's snack food potential. By 1810, his Boston-area business was booming, and, in later years, Bent sold his enterprise to the National Biscuit Company, which now does business under the Nabisco name.

In 1999, the cookie and cracker industry in the United States employed 37,857 people, with sales exceeding $10 billion.[2]

Types

The holes in crackers are called "docking" holes. The holes are placed in the dough to stop overly large air pockets from forming in the cracker while baking. Crackers come in many shapes and sizes - round, square, triangular, etc.

In U.S. English, the name "cracker" is most often applied to flat biscuits with a savory, salty flavor, in distinction from a "cookie", which may be similar to a "cracker" in appearance and texture, but has a sweet flavor. Crackers may be further distinguished from cookies by the manner in which they are made. Crackers are made merely by layering dough and cookies may be made in many of the same manners a cake would be prepared. Crackers sometimes have cheese or spices as ingredients, or even chicken stock. Crackers are typically salted flour products.

Brands including Captain's Wafers, Club Crackers, Town House crackers, Ritz Crackers, Cream crackers and water biscuits are sometimes spread with cheese, pâté, or mousse.

Saltine and oyster crackers are often used in or served with soup.

Mock apple pie is made from Ritz (or similar) crackers.

Graham crackers and digestive biscuits are also eaten as cookies, although they were both invented for their supposed health benefits.

A popular snack is salted crackers with cheese and butter as a topping.[citation needed][dubious ]

Cracker gallery

Animal cracker shapes  
Arare, small Japanese rice crackers  
Cheez-It crackers made by Kellogg  
Cheddar cheese flavored Goldfish crackers  
Mein gon Chinese American crispy fried "noodles"  
A package of oyster crackers  
Japanese Senbei rice cracker with seaweed topping  
Triscuit shredded wheat crackers  
Bagel chips  

See also

References

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Cracker — may refer to: Cracker (food), a type of biscuit, usually salted or savory edible Cracker (mountain), a mountain peak in Glacier National Park Cracker (benchmark), located in the Lewis Range, Glacier National Park in the U.S. state of Montana… …   Wikipedia

  • Cracker (pejorative) — Cracker, sometimes white cracker, is a pejorative term for white people.[1] It is an ethnic slur that is especially used for the white inhabitants of the U.S. states of Georgia and Florida (Georgia crackers and Florida crackers), but it is also… …   Wikipedia

  • cracker-barrel philosophy — [cracker barrel philosophy] noun (AmE infml) honest, simple or direct opinions such as those expressed during a friendly conversation or argument. The phrase was originally used for discussions around the large ↑barrel of ↑ …   Useful english dictionary

  • Cracker Barrel Old Country Store — This article is about the restaurant and store chain. For the Kraft Foods brand, see Kraft Foods. Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. Type Public Traded as NASDAQ:  …   Wikipedia

  • Cracker Jack — This article is about a brand of snack food. For other uses, see Crackerjack (disambiguation). A bag of Frito Lay s Cracker Jack, featuring Sailor Jack and his dog Bingo. Cracker Jack is a U.S. brand of snack consisting of strong molasses… …   Wikipedia

  • Cracker Barrel — Infobox Company company name = Cracker Barrel Old Country Store, Inc. company type = Public (NASDAQ|CBRL) slogan = Homestyle cooking done right. It s a restaurant. It s a store. | foundation = 1969 location = Lebanon, Tennessee key people = Dan… …   Wikipedia

  • Cracker (alimento) — Para otros usos de este término, véase Cracker (desambiguación). Un cracker Cheez It …   Wikipedia Español

  • food — I (New American Roget s College Thesaurus) Nourishment Nouns 1. food, aliment, nourishment, nutriment; aliment[ation], foodstuffs, sustenance, nurture, subsistence, provender, daily bread, fodder, provision, ration, keep, commons, board; fare,… …   English dictionary for students

  • Food — (Roget s Thesaurus) >Eating. < N PARAG:Food >N GRP: N 1 Sgm: N 1 eating eating &c. >V. Sgm: N 1 deglutition deglutition gulp epulation mastication manducation rumination Sgm: N 1 hippophagy hippophagy …   English dictionary for students

  • Cracker Barrel 500 — Kobalt Tools 500 Veranstaltungsort: Atlanta Motor Speedway Hauptsponsor: Lowe’s Erstes Rennen: 1961 Distanz: 500 Meilen (805,9 km) …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”