Graham cracker

The graham cracker was inspired by the preaching of Sylvester Graham, who was part of the 19th-century temperance movement. He believed that minimizing pleasure and stimulation of all kinds, including the prevention of masturbation, coupled with a vegetarian diet anchored by bread made from wheat coarsely ground at home, was how God intended people to live, and that following this natural law would keep people healthy. Towards that end, Graham introduced the world's first graham wafer product. It was a dull, unsifted flour biscuit baked by Graham himself.{{Cite web |last = Lachance Shandrow |first = Kim |date = December 17, 2015 |title = The Seriously Unsexy Origins of the Graham Cracker |url = https://www.entrepreneur.com/living/the-seriously-unsexy-origins-of-the-graham-cracker/252725 |access-date = January 18, 2023 |website = Entrepreneur }}

The sugarless wafers were a key component of the eponymous diet. His preaching was taken up widely in the midst of the 1826–1837 cholera pandemic.{{cite book |last1 = Iacobbo |first1 = Karen |last2 = Iacobbo |first2 = Michael |name-list-style = amp |title = Vegetarian America: A History |url = https://archive.org/details/vegetarianameric0000iaco |url-access = registration |date = 2004 |publisher = Praeger |location = Westport, Connecticut |isbn = 978-0-275-97519-7 |pages = 15–26 }}{{cite book |last1 = Smith |first1 = Andrew F. |title = Eating History: 30 Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine |date = 2009 |publisher = Columbia University Press |location = New York |isbn = 978-0-231-14092-8 |pages = 29–35 }}{{Cite journal |last1 = Tompkins |first1 = K. W. |doi = 10.1525/gfc.2009.9.1.50 |title = Sylvester Graham's Imperial Dietetics |journal = Gastronomica |volume = 9 |pages = 50–60 |year = 2009 |issue = 1 |jstor = 10.1525/gfc.2009.9.1.50 }}{{Cite journal |last1 = Money |first1 = J. |title = Sex, Diet, and Debility in Jacksonian America: Sylvester Graham and Health Reform |journal = The Journal of Sex Research |volume = 18 |issue = 2 |pages = 181–182 |year = 1982 |jstor = 3812085 }} His followers were called Grahamites and formed one of the first vegetarian movements in America; graham flour, graham crackers, and graham bread were created for them. Graham neither invented nor profited from these products.{{harvp|Iacobbo|Iacobbo|2004|p=29}}. Herman Melville has an early reference to the crackers in Book XXII, Chapter I, of his 1852 novel Pierre; or The Ambiguities:

For all the long wards, corridors, and multitudinous chambers of the Apostles' were scattered with the stems of apples, the stones of prunes, and the shells of peanuts. They went about huskily muttering the Kantian Categories through teeth and lips dry and dusty as any miller's, with crumbs of Graham crackers.

The main ingredients in its earlier preparations were graham flour, oil, shortening or lard, molasses and salt.{{cite book |last = Gill |first = J.T. |title = The Complete Bread, Cake and Cracker Baker |publisher = J. Thompson Gill, manager Confectioner and Baker Publishing Company |year = 1881 |url = https://archive.org/details/completebreadca00unkngoog |access-date = September 12, 2018 |page = [https://archive.org/details/completebreadca00unkngoog/page/n232 98] }} Graham crackers have been a mass-produced food product in the United States since 1898, with the National Biscuit Company being the first to mass-produce it at that time.{{cite book |last = Smith |first = A.F. |title = Food and Drink in American History: A "Full Course" Encyclopedia [3 Volumes]: A "Full Course" Encyclopedia |publisher = ABC-CLIO |series = EBSCO ebook academic collection |year = 2013 |isbn = 978-1-61069-233-5 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=o7gxBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA409 |access-date = September 12, 2018 |page = 409 }} The Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company also began mass-producing the product beginning sometime in the early 1910s.{{cite book |last1 = Armstrong |first1 = D. |last2 = Armstrong |first2 = E.M. |title = The Great American Medicine Show: Being an Illustrated History of Hucksters, Healers, Health Evangelists, and Heroes from Plymouth Rock to the Present |publisher = Prentice Hall |year = 1991 |isbn = 978-0-13-364027-4 |url = https://archive.org/details/greatamericanmed00arms |url-access = registration |access-date = September 12, 2018 |page = [https://archive.org/details/greatamericanmed00arms/page/59 59] }}{{cite book |title = Report of the State Entomologist of Connecticut for the Year ... |series = Bulletin |publisher = Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station |year = 1915 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cbA7AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA230 |access-date = September 12, 2018 |page = 230 }} The product continues to be mass-produced in the U.S. and Canada today.{{cite book |last = Krapp |first = Kristine |title = How Products are Made |publisher = Gale |year = 1997 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=aIYUAQAAIAAJ |access-date = September 12, 2018 |pages = 181–182 |isbn = 9780787615475 |quote = Over time, it became known the graham cracker. Due to its popularity and innovation, other bakeries copied his recipe and eventually developed methods for its mass production. Since then, graham crackers have been a popular snack food. They have also become an important ingredient in pie crust recipes. }}

In earlier times, mass-produced graham crackers were typically prepared using yeast-leavened dough, which added flavor to the food via the process of fermentation, whereas contemporary mass-production of the product typically omits this process.{{cite book |last = Matz |first = S.A. |title = Cookie and cracker technology |publisher = Van Nostrand Reinhold |series = AVI book |year = 1992 |isbn = 978-0-442-30892-6 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TJRKAAAAYAAJ |access-date = September 12, 2018 |pages = 124–125 }}{{cite book |title = The Cracker Baker |publisher = American Trade Publishing Company |volume = 9 |year = 1920 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=e4ZNAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA6-PA42 |access-date = September 12, 2018 |page = 6-PA42 }} The dough is sometimes chilled before being rolled out, which prevents blistering and breakage from occurring when the product is baked.

Graham cracker crumbs are used to create graham cracker crusts for fruit pies and moon pies, and as a base, layer or topping for cheesecake.{{cite journal |last = Cole |first = Edith Walters |title = Sylvester P. Graham, 'Father of the Graham Cracker' |journal = The Southern Speech Journal |publisher = Informa UK Limited |volume = 32 |issue = 3 |year = 1967 |issn = 0038-4585 |doi = 10.1080/10417946709371875 |pages = 206–214 }}{{cite book |title = Chilton's Food Engineering |publisher = Chilton Company |volume = 70 |year = 1998 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GVJUAAAAMAAJ |access-date = September 12, 2018 |page = 69 }} Graham cracker pie crusts are mass-produced in the United States, and consumer versions of the product typically consist of a graham cracker crumb mixture pressed into an aluminum pie pan.{{cite web |last = Savoie |first = Lauren |title = Tasting Ready-Made Graham Cracker Crusts |website = Cook's Illustrated |date = April 10, 2017 |url = https://www.cooksillustrated.com/articles/538-tasting-ready-made-graham-cracker-crusts |access-date = September 12, 2018 }} The graham cracker is a main ingredient in the preparation of the s'more.{{cite news |last = Miller |first = Jeffrey |title = S'mores: How this American campfire snack came from the Industrial Revolution |website = The Independent |location = London |date = July 25, 2018 |url = https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/campfire-snack-marshmallow-smore-culinary-history-a8462866.html |access-date = September 12, 2018 }} Graham crackers are commonly used in place of broas in the traditional Filipino icebox cake mango float.{{cite web |url = https://www.thelittleepicurean.com/2015/06/mango-royale-icebox-cake.html |title = Mango Royale (Mango Icebox Cake) |author = Maryanne |date = June 15, 2017 |work = The Little Epicurean |access-date = August 31, 2020 }}{{cite web |title = Mango Float |url = https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/mango-float-5119486 |publisher = Food Network |access-date = August 31, 2020 }}

File:National Biscuit Company graham crackers, 1915.jpg|A box of National Biscuit Company food crackers, c. 1915, which was priced at ten cents

File:Vegetarian s'mores (3680344160).jpg|A s'more

File:Graham cracker crust.jpg|A homemade graham cracker crust

File:Mango float (Cebu City).jpg|A Mango float, an icebox cake dessert from the Philippines using graham crackers, cream, and ripe Philippine mango

{{portal|Food}}

• Digestive biscuit
• Bland diet
• Icebox cake
• Mango float
• List of crackers

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite news |url = https://www.cbsnews.com/news/almanac-graham-crackers |title = Almanac: Graham crackers |publisher = CBS News |date = July 5, 2015 |access-date = September 12, 2018 }}

• [https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/graham-cracker-origins/ The Origin of Graham Crackers]. Snopes.com.
• [http://www.foodrepublic.com/2014/08/11/7-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-graham-crackers/ 7 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Graham Crackers]. Food Republic.
• [https://daily.jstor.org/origins-of-graham-crackers/ "A Hell of a Cracker"] at JSTOR Daily

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Category:American inventions

Category:Crackers (food)

es:Pan Graham#Graham cracker