Animal cracker

Last updated
Animal Cracker
Barnum's animals examples.JPG
Some of Barnum's Animals
TypeBiscuit/cookie
Place of origin England
Invented19th century

An animal cracker is a particular type of cracker, baked in the shape of an animal, usually an animal either at a zoo or a circus, such as a lion, a tiger, a bear, or an elephant. The most common variety is light-colored and slightly sweet, but darker chocolate-flavored and colorful frosted varieties are also sold. Although animal crackers tend to be sweet in flavor like cookies, they are made with a layered dough like crackers and are marketed as crackers and not cookies. [1]

Contents

History

In the late 19th century, animal-shaped crackers (or "biscuits" in British terminology) called "Animals" were imported from England to the United States.[ citation needed ] The demand for these crackers grew to the point that bakers began to produce them domestically. Stauffer's Biscuit Company produced their first batch of animal crackers in York, Pennsylvania, in 1871. [2] Other domestic bakeries, including the Dozier-Weyl Cracker Company of St. Louis, and the Holmes and Coutts Company of New York City, were the predecessors of the National Biscuit Company, today's "Nabisco Brands".

Animal biscuit crackers were made and distributed under the National Biscuit Company banner. In 1902, animal crackers officially became known as "Barnum's Animals" and evoked the familiar circus theme of the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Later in 1902, the now-familiar box was designed for the Christmas season with the innovative idea of attaching a string to hang from the Christmas tree. Until that time, crackers were generally sold only in bulk (the proverbial "cracker barrel") or in large tins. These small cartons, which retailed for 5 cents at the time of their release, were a big hit and are still sold today.

The number and variety contained in each box has varied over the years. In total, [3] 53 different animals have been represented by animal crackers since 1902. In its current incarnation, each package contains 22 cookies consisting of a variety of animals. The most recent addition, the koala, was added in September 2002 after being chosen by consumer votes, beating out the penguin, walrus and cobra. [4]

In 1948, the company changed the product name to its current designation of "Barnum's Animals Crackers". In 1958, production methods changed to improve the cookies' visual details. Until then, animal shapes were stamped out of a dough sheet by a cutter. This produced outlines with little sophistication. By installing rotary dies, bakers can actually engrave details onto each cookie, creating a more intricate design. The rotary dies are still used today.

Barnum's Animals Crackers are all produced in the Fair Lawn, New Jersey, bakery by Nabisco Brands. More than 40 million packages of Barnum's Animals Crackers are sold each year, both in the United States and exported to 17 countries worldwide. The cookies are baked in a 300-foot (91 m)-long traveling band oven. They are in the oven for about four minutes and are baked at the rate of 12,000 per minute. About 15,000 cartons and 330,000 cookies are produced in a single shift, using some 30 miles (48 km) of string on the packages. This runs to nearly 8,000 miles (13,000 km) of string a year. Those bright circus boxes are produced in three colorsred, blue, and yellowwith different variety of animals on each. [5]

In August 2018, Mondelez International (the parent company of Nabisco) released a new design for its Barnum's Animals Crackers boxes in the United States, showing the animals freed from their traditional circus boxcar cages. This design change was made in consultation with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), one year after the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus ceased operations. The new design shows a zebra, lion, elephant, giraffe and gorilla together in an African landscape. [6]

Varieties

In total, 53 [3] different animals have been featured in Barnum's Animals Crackers since 1902. The current cookies are bear, bison, camel, cougar, elephant, giraffe, gorilla, hippopotamus, hyena, kangaroo, koala, lion, monkey, rhinoceros, seal, sheep, tiger, and zebra. [5] To celebrate its 100th anniversary, Barnum's added the koala to the menagerie in September 2002. [7]

Stauffer's Animals Crackers Stauffer's animal crackers.JPG
Stauffer's Animals Crackers

Stauffer's animal crackers include bear, bison, camel, cow, cat, donkey, elephant, hippopotamus, horse, lion, mountain goat, rhinoceros, and tiger. They are made in plain (vanilla), chocolate graham, cinnamon graham, "cotton candy" and icing-covered variants, as well as "breakfast cookies" made with oats, almonds, cranberries, and pomegranate.

Austin Zoo Animal Crackers currently feature bear, camel, elephant, lion, monkey, owl, penguin, rabbit, ram, rhino, turtle, and zebra.[ citation needed ]

Cadburys Animals are chocolate coated and feature crocodile, elephant, hippo, monkey, lion, tiger, and toucan.

Manufacturers

Nabisco makes Barnum's Animals Crackers, with their distinctive package art of a circus wagon fitted out as a cage and animals within it. “Barnum” refers to the famous showman and circus entrepreneur P. T. Barnum, but Nabisco does not pay a licensing fee to Barnum and Bailey Circus. [4] The product actually says “Barnum's Animals”, subtitled “Crackers”. Half of the wheels are printed on the large sides of the box but at one time the printed wheels continued to the bottom of the box, and were partially perforated along their outline, which allowed punching the wheels out and standing the wagon to stand on its wheels. Responding to requests from PETA, in August 2018 Nabisco released new package art displaying the animals roaming free. [8]

Stauffer Biscuit Company of York, Pennsylvania, a Japanese company owned by Meiji, also has a line of animal crackers, which are now distributed by several major discount retailers. Their use of the spices nutmeg and mace give the basic animal cracker a slightly different character from the Nabisco crackers. Former owner Rodney Stauffer [9] now has his own company, Rodney's Animal Crackers, that also produces animal crackers. [10]

Austin, a division of the Keebler Company, also makes a variety of animal crackers. The Austin variety has similar nutritional content and animal shapes. The Austin product is labeled under the name of the Kellogg Company, which acquired Keebler in 2001. [11] [12]

The Borden corporation also produced a brand of animal crackers, until the late 1970s. They came in a red box, which featured the famous Elsie the Cow logo.

Market Square Food Company Inc. in Illinois has also produced its own brand of animal crackers since 1982. Its animal crackers are distributed by several major retailers throughout the United States and internationally.

Sam's Club distributes animal crackers under its ‘’Member's Mark’’ house brand.

In the UK, Cadburys produce a range simply called “Animals”. [13] As noted above, these biscuits have a chocolate coating on one side.

In Germany, Bahlsen produces animal crackers under the Leibniz brand.

In New Zealand, Arnott's manufactures ‘’Iced Animals’’, colourfully iced animal crackers.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cookie</span> Small, flat and sweetened baked food (biscuit)

A cookie, or biscuit, is a baked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat, and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, or nuts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cracker (food)</span> Flat, dry baked biscuit

A cracker is a flat, dry baked biscuit typically made with flour. Flavorings or seasonings, such as salt, herbs, seeds, or cheese, may be added to the dough or sprinkled on top before baking. Crackers are often branded as a nutritious and convenient way to consume a staple food or cereal grain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oreo</span> Chocolate cookie with creme filling made by Nabisco

Oreo is a brand of sandwich cookie consisting of two cocoa biscuits or cookie pieces with a sweet fondant filling. It was introduced by Nabisco on March 6, 1912, and through a series of corporate acquisitions, mergers and splits both Nabisco and the Oreo brand have been owned by Mondelez International since 2012. Oreo cookies are available in over one hundred countries. Many varieties of Oreo cookies have been produced, and limited-edition runs have become popular in the 21st century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nabisco</span> American snack company

Nabisco is an American manufacturer of cookies and snacks headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey. The company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Mondelēz International.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ritz Crackers</span> Brand name of snack cracker by Nabisco

Ritz Crackers is a brand of snack cracker introduced by Nabisco in 1934. The original style crackers are disc-shaped, lightly salted, and approximately 46 millimetres (1.8 in) in diameter.. Each cracker has seven perforations and a finely scalloped edge. Today, the Ritz cracker brand is owned by Mondelēz International.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keebler Company</span> American cookie and former cracker manufacturer

The Keebler Company is an American cookie and former cracker manufacturer. Founded in 1853, it has produced numerous baked snacks, advertised with the Keebler Elves. Keebler had marketed its brands such as Cheez-It, Chips Deluxe, Club Crackers, E.L. Fudge Cookies, Famous Amos, Fudge Shoppe Cookies, Murray cookies, Austin, Plantation, Vienna Fingers, Town House Crackers, Wheatables, Sandie's Shortbread, Pizzarias Pizza Chips, Chachos and Zesta Crackers, among others. Keebler slogans have included "Uncommonly Good" and "a little elfin magic goes a long way". Tom Shutter and Leo Burnett wrote the familiar jingle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheez-It</span> Baked cheese crackers

Cheez-It is a brand of cheese cracker manufactured by Kellanova through its Sunshine Biscuits division. Approximately 26 by 24 millimetres, the rectangular crackers are made with wheat flour, vegetable oil, cheese, skim milk, salt, and spices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goldfish (cracker)</span> Fish-shaped cracker

Goldfish are a fish-shaped cracker with a small imprint of an eye and a smile manufactured by Pepperidge Farm, which is a division of the Campbell Soup Company. The brand's current marketing and product packaging incorporate this feature of the product: "The Snack That Smiles Back! Goldfish!", reinforced by Finn, the smiling goldfish mascot with sunglasses. The product is marketed as a "baked snack cracker" on the label with various flavors and varieties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunshine Biscuits</span> Defunct American snack company

Sunshine Biscuits, formerly known as The Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, is a defunct independent American baker of cookies, crackers, and cereals. The company, which became a brand on a few products such as Cheez-It, was purchased by Keebler Company in 1996, which was purchased by Kellogg Company in 2001. Around then, Sunshine Biscuits was headquartered in Elmhurst, Illinois, where Keebler was located until 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saltine cracker</span> American salted square cracker

A saltine or soda cracker is a thin, usually square, cracker, made from white flour, sometimes yeast, and baking soda, with most varieties lightly sprinkled with coarse salt. It has perforations over its surface, as well as a distinctively dry and crisp texture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arnott's Group</span> Australian snack food manufacturer

Arnott's Group is an Australian producer of biscuits and snack food. Founded in 1865 by William Arnott, they are the largest producer of biscuits in Australia and a subsidiary of KKR.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zu Zu Ginger Snaps</span> Brand of cookies

Zu Zu Ginger Snaps was a brand of round drop cookies originally manufactured in 1901 by the National Biscuit Company (NBC) –later changed to Nabisco– and produced until the early 1980s. The snaps are "a spicy combination of ginger and sugar-cane molasses" and came in a distinctive yellow box with reddish type.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Club Crackers</span> Type of cracker

Club Crackers are crackers made by the Kellogg Company. They are somewhat similar in resemblance to saltines, but are rectangular and have 18 holes in a 3x6 pattern instead of the 13 holes in a 3-2-3-2-3 pattern that are on a saltine.( Club and cheddar cracker packs have the 32323 holes) Also, their short edges are even, not perforated. They have a buttery flavor and a large amount of fat, 3g per serving, or 84g per 13.7 oz box not found in regular saltines. The crackers contain 70 calories per serving with four total crackers in one serving. Originally branded as a product of Keebler, it became a product of Kellogg's after the mega American manufacturer acquired the brand in 2001, before subsequently selling the Keebler cookie lineup as well as rights to the Keebler brand name in 2019.

Mickey's Surprise Party is a 1939 American animated short film directed by Hamilton Luske, produced by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by National Biscuit Company. It was the 105th short in the Mickey Mouse film series to be released, and the second for that year. Mickey's Surprise Party is the first cartoon with Mickey and Minnie Mouse in their current designs, created by animator Fred Moore.

<i>Animal Crackers</i> (2017 film) 2017 animated film

Animal Crackers is a 2017 animated comedy-fantasy film directed by Scott Christian Sava and Tony Bancroft, written by Sava and Dean Lorey and based on the animal-shaped cookie. The film stars the voices of Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, Danny DeVito, Ian McKellen, Sylvester Stallone, Patrick Warburton, Raven-Symoné, Harvey Fierstein, Wallace Shawn, Gilbert Gottfried, Tara Strong, James Arnold Taylor, Kevin Grevioux and Lydia Rose Taylor. It tells the story of a family who comes across a box of magical animal crackers that turns anyone that consumes a cracker into the animal that the cracker represents and this animal handily saves the circus that the family was associated with.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheese cracker</span> Type of cracker

The cheese cracker is a type of cracker prepared using cheese as a main ingredient. Additional common cracker ingredients are typically used, such as grain, flour, shortening, leavening, salt and various seasonings. The ingredients are formed into a dough, and the individual crackers are then prepared. Some cheese crackers are prepared using fermented dough. Cheese crackers are typically baked. Another method of preparing cheese crackers involves placing cheese atop warm crackers. Cheese crackers have been described as a "high-calorie snack", which is due to a higher fat content compared to other types of crackers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bagley (company)</span> Argentine food company

Bagley Argentina S.A. is an Argentine food company with its main plant located in Buenos Aires. Established by U.S.-born entrepreneur Melville Sewell Bagley in 1864, the company had a wide variety of brands, having specialised in the production of crackers and cookies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrabusi</span>

Terrabusi is an Argentine food brand currently owned by US conglomerate Mondelez International. The former manufacturing company had been founded by the Terrabusi brothers in 1911, and soon gained a reputation as a cookies and crackers manufacturer, commercialising its products under several brands. In 1994, Terrabusi was purchased by U.S.-based company Nabisco, which would be acquired by Philip Morris Companies, Inc. in 2000. As a result, both food companies joined.

References

  1. "FAQs | Stauffer's Animal Crackers". www.stauffers.com. Archived from the original on 2022-07-03. Retrieved 2022-07-08.
  2. "Stauffer's Original Animal Crackers History". Stauffers.com. Archived from the original on 2008-09-08. Retrieved 2016-10-16.
  3. 1 2 "A Box Filled with Sweet Memories". Los Angeles Times . 2 January 2002.
  4. 1 2 Frey, Jennifer (2002-01-02). "A Box Filled With Sweet Memories". Los Angeles Times. ISSN   0458-3035 . Retrieved 2015-07-24.
  5. 1 2 "Happy National Animal Cracker Day – from Fair Lawn!". Youdontknowjersey.com. 2012-04-18. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  6. "Animal Crackers Animals "Freed" As Boxes Get New Look". cbsnews.com. 2018-08-21.
  7. "National Animal Crackers Day | Facts From the Stacks" . Retrieved 2022-09-04.
  8. Kennedy, Merrit (21 August 2018). "No More Cages: New Animal Cracker Packaging Sets the Mighty Beasts Free". NPR.
  9. LinkedIn profile of Rodney's Animal Crackers president Rodney Stauffer, former owner of D.F. Stauffer Biscuit Company of York, Pennsylvania
  10. Rodney's Animal Crackers website
  11. Winter, Greg (2000-10-27). "Kellogg Agrees to Buy Keebler Foods for $3.86 Billion". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  12. Hirsch, Lauren (2019-04-01). "Kellogg announces plans to sell Keebler and Famous Amos to Nutella-owner Ferrero for $1.3 billion". CNBC. Retrieved 2022-02-28.
  13. Archived 2010-10-12 at the Wayback Machine
  14. "Quotes for Inspector David Toschi (Character) : Zodiac (2007)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2014-02-13.
  15. "40 years of Zodiac – The cold case that haunts Dave Toschi - City Brights: Duffy Jennings". Blog.sfgate.com. 2009-10-07. Retrieved 2014-02-13.