The graham cracker was developed in 1822 in Bound Brook, New Jersey, by Presbyterian minister Rev. Sylvester Graham. Conceived of as a "health food", it is more like a digestive biscuit than a cracker. The true graham cracker is made with graham flour, which is unsifted and coarsely ground wheat flour. He used this due to its high fiber content. His original "Graham bread" was the centerpiece of the Graham Diet, a regimen to suppress what he considered unhealthy carnal urges, the source of many maladies according to Graham. He gained many followers including James Caleb Jackson who would invent granula.
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Modern Use
Many modern "graham crackers" are made of the refined, bleached white flour to which the Rev. Graham was implacably opposed. Some modern commercial graham crackers are no longer considered health food, but have remained popular as a snack food with greater amounts of sugar, honey and other sweeteners than in the original recipe, and far less graham flour, often with no whole-wheat flour whatsoever. Cinnamon or chocolate may be added to enhance the flavor of the crackers. Technically, crackers are not really graham crackers unless they are made with graham flour, which is simply a coarsely-ground hard whole-wheat flour.
Regional Variations
In some regions of the world, such as Canada, graham crackers are called "graham wafers".
See also
External links
- "Is it true graham crackers were invented to cure the dread fever of lust?" on The Straight Dope website
- Information on Graham Flour and recipes
- International Vegetarian Union Biography of Sylvester Graham
- about.com Another biography of Sylvester Graham
