![]() A bowl of oyster crackers | |
Alternative names | water cracker |
---|---|
Type | Cracker |
Place of origin | United States |
Region or state | Northeast |
Created by | Westminster Cracker Company |
Main ingredients | Enriched flour, shortening, leavening (baking powder), yeast, sugar, salt |
Oyster crackers are small, salted crackers, typically rounds about 15 millimetres (5⁄8 inch) in diameter, although a slightly smaller hexagonal variety is also common. Oyster crackers are often served with oyster stew and clam chowder and have a flavor similar to saltine crackers.
Oyster crackers are popular in the northeastern United States, where they are served as an accompaniment to soup, and in the Cincinnati area, where they are frequently served with that city's distinctive chili. In New England, oyster crackers are served with oyster stew and chowders. Plain oyster crackers are sometimes seasoned with various spices or pepper sauce and served as an appetizer or snack. Oyster crackers have a taste similar to saltine crackers, but usually are less salty. In other areas of the United States, they are among the choices for crackers with soup or salads and are often available in restaurants in single serving packages.
Many different companies produce oyster crackers with different combinations of shortenings and other ingredients, but retaining the same general shape and size.
The origin of the term "oyster cracker" is unclear, but it may be that they were originally served with oyster stew or clam chowder or possibly that they look somewhat like an oyster in its shell. [1] Other names include "water cracker," "Philadelphia cracker," and "Trenton cracker". [2]
The Westminster Cracker Company, currently of Rutland, Vermont, has been making oyster crackers since 1828. [3] However, a counterclaim credits Adam Exton with inventing the oyster cracker nearly 18 years later.
Adam Exton, a baker in Trenton, New Jersey, immigrated to America from Lancashire, England, in 1842. In Trenton, Exton opened a cake and cracker bakery with his brother-in-law, Richard Aspden, in 1846. Although Aspden died the following year, Exton continued with the bakery (the "Exton Cracker Bakery" or "Adam Exton & Co."). He invented a machine that rolled and docked pastry and solved the sanitary problems of hand-rolling crackers.
The history of the oyster cracker was related by Exton's nephew, also named Adam Exton, in the Trenton Evening Times newspaper on May 31, 1917:
Even a cracker has a history. The past, present and future of the little disc of baked dough with "Exton" stamped across the face of it was discussed by Rotarian Adam Exton, of the Exton Cracker Company, at the weekly meeting of Trenton Rotary Club held this afternoon at Hildebrecht's... Manufacture of the Exton oyster cracker was started in Trenton, in the same location now occupied by the company's factory of Center Street, in 1847. Adam Exton, uncle of the speaker, was the originator of the oyster cracker. At the outset the factory had an output of 100 pounds of crackers a day, 36 of them to a pound, making a daily capacity of 3,600 crackers.} (for the record, oyster crackers of today are much smaller and a pound of oyster crackers runs between 350 and 400 crackers, depending on manufacturer)
New England cuisine is an American cuisine which originated in the New England region of the United States, and traces its roots to traditional English cuisine and Native American cuisine of the Abenaki, Narragansett, Niantic, Wabanaki, Wampanoag, and other native peoples. It also includes influences from Irish, French-Canadian, Italian, and Portuguese cuisine, among others. It is characterized by extensive use of potatoes, beans, dairy products and seafood, resulting from its historical reliance on its seaports and fishing industry. Corn, the major crop historically grown by Native American tribes in New England, continues to be grown in all New England states, primarily as sweet corn although flint corn is grown as well. It is traditionally used in hasty puddings, cornbreads and corn chowders.
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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.
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.
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Corn chowder is a chowder soup prepared using corn as a primary ingredient. Basic corn chowder is commonly made of corn, onion, celery, milk or cream, and butter. Additional ingredients sometimes used include potatoes or squash, salt pork, fish, seafood and chicken. In the United States, recipes for corn chowder date to at least as early as 1884. Corn chowder is mass-produced as a canned food in the U.S.
Shkedei marak, known as mandlakh in Yiddish, or as "soup mandels" or "soup nuts" in the United States, is an Israeli food product consisting of crisp mini crouton used as a soup accompaniment. Shkedei marak are small yellow squares made from flour and palm oil. As a parve product, they can be used in either meat or cream soups. Despite the name, they contain no almonds.
Crown Pilot was a brand of cracker popular in much of New England in the United States. It was manufactured by Nabisco until it was discontinued in the first quarter of 2008. The cracker was unsalted, and closely related to hardtack. The crackers were an important ingredient in historical recipes of clam chowder and a staple in many New England pantries.
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The Westminster Cracker Company is a New England–based company established in Westminster, Massachusetts, in 1828. The original building, which is depicted in its product labeling, still stands in the center of Westminster, although it has not been used for manufacturing for decades. The company is now based in Rutland, Vermont.
Oyster stew is a stew made with oysters. It is popular in the United States and in The Gambia.
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