History of the Cracker
Update: This history of crackers does not exist anymore on Wikipedia that we can find. Perhaps there was something wrong with these two paragraphs–such as, hardtack being a form of cracker? So far I haven’t disproved the paragraphs.
“Crackers are said to have been invented in 1792 when Theodore Pearson (1753-1817) of Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA, [1] made a pilot-like bread product from just flour and water that he called Pearson’s Pilot Bread. It was an immediate success with sailors because of its shelf life. This was the first cracker bakery in the United States, and produced crackers for more than a century. [2] Crown Pilot Crackers from the same recipe were made and sold in New England up until early 2008, and used in traditional clam chowder recipes.
“But the real revolutionary moment in the life of the cracker came in 1801 when another Massachusetts baker, Josiah Bent, burned a batch of biscuits in his brick oven. The crackling noise that emanated from the singed biscuits inspired the name – crackers – and a bit of ingenuity, as Bent set out to convince the world of the product’s snack food potential. By 1810, his Boston-area business was booming, and, in later years, Bent sold his enterprise to the National Biscuit Company, which now does business under the Nabisco name.”
1. ^ http://www.worldcat.org/title/1795-1895-one-hundred-years-of-american-commerce-a-history-of-american-commerce-by-one-hundred-americans-with-a-chronological-table-of-the-important-events-of-american-commerce-and-invention-within-the-past-one-hundred-years/oclc/1166111
2. ^ Read, Reflect, Respond – Book 2. R.I.C. Publications.
