Cracker (food)

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Cracker
Crackers with herring and garlic sauce.jpg
Water biscuit crackers with herring and garlic sauce
Place of originvarious
Created byunknown
Main ingredients flour, water
Variations papadum , senbei and num kreab

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. [1] Crackers are often branded as a nutritious and convenient way to consume a staple food or cereal grain.

Contents

Reproduction of 19th-century hardtack, in the Army (square) and Navy (round) styles Army and Navy hard tack.jpg
Reproduction of 19th-century hardtack, in the Army (square) and Navy (round) styles

Crackers can be eaten on their own, but can also accompany other food items such as cheese or meat slices, fruits, dips, or soft spreads such as jam, butter, peanut butter, or mousse. Bland or mild crackers are sometimes used as a palate cleanser in food product testing or flavor testing, between samples. Crackers may also be crumbled and added to soup. [2] The modern cracker is somewhat similar to nautical ship's biscuits, [3] military hardtack, chacknels, [4] and sacramental bread. Other early versions of the cracker can be found in ancient flatbreads, such as lavash, pita, matzo, flatbrød, and crispbread. Asian analogues include papadum , senbei and num kreab .

The characteristic holes found in many crackers are called "docking" holes. The holes are poked in the dough to stop overly large air pockets from forming in the cracker while baking.

Names

In American English, the name "cracker" usually refers to savory or salty flat biscuits, whereas the term "cookie" is used for sweet items. Crackers are also generally made differently: crackers are made by layering dough, while cookies, besides the addition of sugar, usually use a chemical leavening agent, may contain eggs, and in other ways are made more like a cake. [5] In British English, crackers are sometimes called water biscuits, [6] [7] or savoury biscuits.

Types

Crackers come in many shapes and sizes, such as round, rectangular, triangular, or irregular. Crackers sometimes have cheese or spices as ingredients, or even chicken stock, such as In a Biskit, which is sold internationally with various flavors.

Saltines and oyster crackers are often used in or served with soup. Similar crackers include cream crackers and water biscuits.

Cheese crackers are prepared using cheese as a main ingredient. Commercial examples include Cheez-It, Cheese Nips and Goldfish.

Graham crackers and digestive biscuits are also treated more like cookies than crackers, although they were both invented for their supposed health benefits, and modern graham crackers are sweet. Similarly, animal crackers are crackers in name only. Animal crackers and Graham crackers may have docking holes.[ citation needed ]

Brands

Cracker brands include Bremner Wafers, Captain's Wafers, Cheese Nips, Club Crackers, Goldfish crackers, In a Biskit, Jacob's, Ritz Crackers, Town House crackers, Triscuit, TUC, and Wheat Thins, among others.

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">Graham cracker</span> Confectionery

A graham cracker is a sweet flavored cracker made with graham flour that originated in the United States in the mid-19th century, with commercial development from about 1880. It is eaten as a snack food, usually honey- or cinnamon-flavored, and is used as an ingredient in some foods, e.g., in the graham cracker crust for cheesecakes and pies.

<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">Biscuit</span> Sweet baked product

A biscuit, in most English speaking countries, is a flour-based baked and shaped food product. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. Types of biscuit include sandwich biscuits, digestive biscuits, ginger biscuits, shortbread biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate-coated marshmallow treats, Anzac biscuits, biscotti, and speculaas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hardtack</span> Biscuit often for naval and military use

Hardtack is a type of dense biscuit or cracker made from flour, water, and sometimes salt. Hardtack is inexpensive and long-lasting. It is used for sustenance in the absence of perishable foods, commonly during long sea voyages, land migrations, and military campaigns. Along with salt pork and corned beef, hardtack was a standard ration for many militaries and navies from the 17th to the early 20th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Triscuit</span> Snack crackers

Triscuit is a brand name of snack crackers which take the form of square baked whole wheat wafers. Invented in 1900, a patent was granted in 1902 and the Shredded Wheat Company began production the next year in Niagara Falls, New York.

<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">Cream cracker</span> Type of biscuit

A cream cracker is a flat, usually square, savoury biscuit. The name "cream crackers" refers to the method in which the mixture is creamed during manufacture. The cream cracker is traditionally prepared using fermented dough.

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

Sunshine Biscuits, formerly known as The Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company, was an 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">Cheese Nips</span> Cheese-flavored cracker

Cheese Nips were a small cheese-flavored cracker manufactured by Mondelez International under its brand, Nabisco, they were originally used to compete against Sunshine Biscuit's Cheez-It crackers.

<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">Animal cracker</span> Cracker baked in the shape of an animal

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Water biscuit</span> Type of biscuit or cracker

A water biscuit or water cracker is a type of savoury cracker. They are thin, hard and brittle, and usually served with cheese or wine. Originally produced in the 19th century as a version of the ship's biscuit, water biscuits continue to be popular in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, with the leading brands selling over seventy million packets a year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Better Cheddars</span> Snack food brand

Better Cheddars is a brand of baked cheese crackers that are prepared using cheddar cheese as a main ingredient. Better Cheddars are manufactured by Nabisco, a subsidiary of Mondelēz International. In the United States, Better Cheddars are marketed under the "Flavor Originals" trademark, which also includes the Chicken in a Biskit brand. Better Cheddars were first introduced by Nabisco in February 1981. Various flavors of the cracker have been purveyed to consumers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">In a Biskit</span> Brand of crackers

In a Biskit is a line of snack crackers produced by Nabisco. Originally released in the United States as Chicken in a Biskit in early 1964, the line has since grown to be available internationally with a variety of flavours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pepperidge Farm</span> American commercial bakery

Pepperidge Farm is an American commercial bakery founded in 1937 by Margaret Rudkin, who named the brand after her family's 123-acre farm property in Fairfield, Connecticut, which had been named for the pepperidge tree.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biscuit (bread)</span> Type of bread

In the United States and Canada, a biscuit is a variety of baked bread with a firm, dry exterior and a soft, crumbly interior. It is made with baking powder as a leavening agent rather than yeast, and at times is called a baking powder biscuit to differentiate it from other types. Like other forms of bread, a biscuit is often served with butter or other condiments, flavored with other ingredients, or combined with other types of food to make sandwiches or other dishes.

<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.

References

  1. Manley, D. (2011). Manley's Technology of Biscuits, Crackers and Cookies. Woodhead Publishing Series in Food Science, Technology and Nutrition. Elsevier Science. ISBN   978-0-85709-364-6 . Retrieved October 8, 2017.
  2. "The right moves for soup sippers". tribunedigital-baltimoresun. Archived from the original on 2018-11-07. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
  3. Gooii. "Hardtack (Ships Biscuits) recipe - Cookit!". cookit.e2bn.org. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
  4. Raffald, Elizabeth (1818). The Experienced English Housekeeper: For the Use and Ease of Ladies, Housekeepers, Cooks, &c. : Written Purely from Practice, and Dedicated to the Hon. Lady Elizabeth Warburton, Whom the Author Lately Served as Housekeeper, Consisting of Near Nine Hundred Original Receipts, Most of which Never Appeared in Print ... with Two Plans of a Grand Table of Two Covers and a Curious New Invented Fire Stove Wherein Any Common Fuel May be Burnt Instead of Charcoal. James Webster.
  5. "Original NESTLÉ® TOLL HOUSE® Chocolate Chip Cookies". NESTLÉ® Very Best Baking. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
  6. "Water biscuit definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary". www.collinsdictionary.com. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
  7. "British Vs. American English: Food Terminology". www.lostinthepond.com. Retrieved 2018-11-07.

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