Four Cookie Facts

The Fig Newton is named for Newton, Massachusetts where it was originally made.

Lorna Doones  were introduced in 1912. The shortbread biscuits were considered a product of Scottish heritage, and back then, Lorna Doone character was symbolic of Scotland.

Nabisco created 'Barnum's Animals' in 1902 and sold them in a little box designed like an animal cage with a string attached to carry and hang on Christmas trees. In 1948, the company changed the name to its current 'Barnum's Animal Crackers'. Fifty Four different animals have been represented by animal crackers since 1902. Currently, each package contains 22 crackers consisting of a variety of animals. The newest, a koala was added in September 2002, but later retired. Current animals include bear, camel, crocodile, elephant, giraffe, gorilla, horse, lion, seal, tiger, and zebra.

The name Oreo was inspired by the gold color used on early package designs. The French word for gold is Or. A number of other versions for the name persist, but this is most widely accepted.

The original name was Oreo Biscuit. It was renamed in 1921, to "Oreo Sandwich. In 1948, the Oreo Sandwich was renamed the "Oreo Creme Sandwich." It was changed in 1974 to the Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookie. Oreos are a knockoff of the Sunshine Hydrox cookie invented two years earlier.

Today, China has become the second largest Oreo market, after the United States.

Graham Cracker Facts

During the 1820s, Sylvester Graham created the eponymous cracker as part of his diet plan thought to increase physical wellness, sexual purity, and spiritual health. The Presbyterian minister's mission was to rid the world of sexual immorality. He believed a vegetarian diet, devoid of spices and sugars, combined with avoiding foods made with overly processed flours would do away with the greatest evils of his day, lustful thought and masturbation. Of course, neither Graham crackers nor his diet have ever been shown to cure sexual urges.

Graham flour is essentially a type of non-bleached, finely ground whole wheat flour. Among other things made with this flour, Graham made bland crackers. They were not the sweet treat we enjoy today.

Nabisco began making Graham crackers with bleached white flour and oils. The germ is rarely used today so the crackers have a longer shelf life.

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and his brother Will found the minister’s ideas useful at their Sanitarium in Battle Creek Michigan. Dr. Kellogg imposed the vegetarian diet on his patients with the belief that it could cure some of their troubles.

The brothers made their own Graham crackers on the premises. Once, Will left out some prepared wheat used to make Graham crackers. When he came back to finish the cooking, the dough had become hard and stale. Because he could not afford to waste a whole batch’s ingredients, he used it in the baking process anyway. Rather than get thin wafers after extruding the dough through rollers, he ended up with hard crispy flakes, similar to the corn flakes we eat today. Now you know how Graham crackers and Kellogg's corn flakes are related.

Seven Interesting Cracker Facts

The first cracker was made in 1792 by John Pearson. He was looking to make a type of biscuit that would last longer than traditional sailor’s biscuits without spoiling. He eventually mixed just flour and water, baked it, and called his invention 'Pearson’s Pilot Bread'. This later became known as hardtack or sea biscuit and was popular among sailors due to its long shelf life without spoiling.

The name cracker came to be when Josiah Bent accidentally burned a batch of what we now call crackers.  As they burned, they made a crackling noise, which inspired the name.  He invented soda crackers, which were precursors to saltine crackers we enjoy. Some folks still call saltines soda crackers. In 1810 Bent’s cracker business was acquired by the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco).

Crackers have holes for a reason, because the holes allow steam to escape during cooking. This keeps the crackers flat and the holes also help crisp the crackers. If the holes are too close together, the cracker will become extra dry and hard, due to too much steam escaping. If the holes are too far apart, parts of the cracker will rise a bit forming little bubbles on the surface of the cracker, which is undesirable in most types of crackers, except Cheez Its. There are hundreds of varieties of crackers now and sales are over $10 Billion a year.