Info about Crackers
Cracker
Crackers are a highly versatile food. They can be eaten on their own as a snack, or with a variety of different toppings to make up part of an additional course to a dinner party or a meal at a restaurant. A huge industry has built up around crackers over the years, and their popularity continues to grow as the dinner party is coming back into fashion. They are made from unleavened flour dough which has been baked, and come in a number of different shapes and sizes. Different varieties of crackers can be created by adding a number of different herbs, spices and salt during the preparation process, before baking.
Because of their size, crackers make a very convenient travel food, and provide an easy way for a person to gain nutrition. Because of this, crackers began their life as a product for sailors. In 1792, a cracker-like product was manufactured in Massachusetts. It was made from flour and water, and known as Pearson’s Pilot Bread. As well as being convenient for storage during travel, the bread also had a very long social life, and due to this became a big hit with sailors. As a result, it became referred to as a sea biscuit. These crackers were the first to be produced in the US, and were made in the same manner for over a century. Although it can be said that sea biscuits are an early form of cracker, the real turning point in the development of the modern cracker happened in 1801, also in Massachusetts, when Josiah Bent, a baker, burnt a batch of biscuits. According to the story, the ‘cracking’ noise that the biscuits made during this was the inspiration for the name. Josiah attempted to convince his customers, and other retailers, that his accidental discovery was a revolutionary new snack type. Just under a decade later, in 1810, he had a thriving cracker business, and later sold it to the National Biscuit Company, making him a very wealthy man. The cracker industry has continued to grow since the early beginnings and in the USA alone, now employs over 37,000 people and has annual sales of around $10 billion a year.
As mentioned earlier, there are a number of different types of cracker. They can be a number of different shapes, such as square, triangles and circles. They may sometimes have ingredients such as Cheese and spices, and are usually savory products, although some variations are sweeter. There are a number of different brands of cracker, including Club Crackers, Ritz Cracker and Town House Crackers. They can be consumed on their own, or spread with cheese, pâté or mousse. Graham Crackers are often eaten in a manner similar to cookies, though they were designed for providing alleged health benefits. Digestive biscuits function in a similar manner, and are especially popular in the United Kingdom where they sell in large quantities, despite providing no real aid to digestion. They can come in a number of varieties which make them even more similar to cookies, such as coated with a layer of dark or milk chocolate to sweeten the taste.
Crackers are distinguished from the sweeter biscuit variation of cookies as they are a salty and savory product. As well as this, they also differ in the manner of manufacture.
Cookies are baked in a manner that is similar to that in which a cake may be prepared, whilst crackers are made by simply layering the dough and adding ‘docking holes’, which prevent large air pockets from forming in the cracker during the baking process.