A graham cracker (pronounced or in the US) 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, and mass production beginning in 1898 by The National Biscuit Company. 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.

The sugarless wafers were a key component of the eponymous diet. 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. 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. The Loose-Wiles Biscuit Company also began mass-producing the product beginning sometime in the early 1910s. The product continues to be mass-produced in the U.S. and Canada today.

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. The dough is sometimes chilled before being rolled out, which prevents blistering and breakage from occurring when the product is baked. 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. The graham cracker is a main ingredient in the preparation of the s'more. Graham crackers are commonly used in place of broas in the traditional Filipino icebox cake mango float.

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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

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See also

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

References

Further reading

  • The Origin of Graham Crackers. Snopes.com.
  • 7 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Graham Crackers. Food Republic.
  • "A Hell of a Cracker" at JSTOR Daily

es:Pan Graham#Graham cracker