Artigenda
Graham Cracker Day
When: annually, July 5.
On July 5, it’s time to commemorate the Graham Cracker and Sylvester Graham (July 5, 1794 – September 11, 1851). This day is considered as an American national day. However, this day is also considered as important in other parts of the world. All because of the Graham Crackers that were invented by Graham, who was born on July 5.
Who was Sylvester Graham?
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Graham was a minister attached to the Presbyterian Church and working for the Philadelphia Temperance Society. He was engaged in preaching church doctrine, but also in alerting people to their health. This was necessary, as a major cholera epidemic broke out in Europe between 1829 and 1851, and people in the United States feared it would also reach the country. The strictly Reformed people Graham spoke to thought the epidemic was a punishment from God and the best remedies would be to eat a lot of meat, avoid vegetables and drink port or wine. He was not convinced of this. Graham was a vegetarian himself and decided to explain to people about it. Together with like-minded people, he founded the American Vegetarian Society in 1850. This was modelled on a similar organisation in Britain.
Not everything was worth praising
Not everything about Graham was worth praising. For instance, he had some peculiar views on marriage and sex. For instance, masturbation was a ticket towards blindness and an early end to life. On the position of women, he was clear: they just stayed at home and did their thing there. He also thought it was a good idea to mainly sleep on hard beds and avoid hot baths.
What was positive: the cholera epidemic did indeed reach New York (1832) and people had read his nutrition advice. On how to make bread, for example. About that, he wrote a book “Treatise on Bread and Bread-Making.” It wasn’t just about how to make bread. It was also about the history of bread. Compare it to all this you are reading now. It’s about the Day of the Graham Cracker and meanwhile, you’re reading about the history of Graham Cracker… er, Sylvester Cracker… Sylvester Graham!
Talk about a very good example. Opium was the cause of Graham’s death on 11 September 1851. Incidentally, the opium was prescribed to him by his doctor. The very same doctor had prescribed him to eat meat at the end of his life as a solution to his health problems.
Besides Graham crackers, Sylvester Graham’s legacy is Graham bread and Graham flour (coarsely ground flour). But the crackers are still the most important.
A Graham Cracker isn't a Cream Cracker!
When it comes to pronunciation, especially when you pronounce the words quickly, you might confuse the two. Except that a Graham cracker is not a Cream cracker. One hundred per cent not! It has to do with the ingredients and the origin. Cream crackers come from England.
A Graham cracker is a cracker with a sweet taste. This can sometimes be a detrimental surprise if you haven’t taken this into account. Usually, you eat these as a snack. Although there are people who eat them for breakfast. The crackers were inspired by an invention of Graham himself. A very uninspiring tasteless concoction, it seems, with no real flavour. A type of wafer that hit the market in 1829.
The version that appeared after Graham’s death did have flavour and contained Graham flour, oil – usually cooking fat or lard -, molasses and salt. In 1898, mass production was started by the National Biscuit Company and became a success. Then the Koose-Wiles Biscuit Company also came out with a similar product (1910). This product is still sold today. Today, the crackers are made without yeast dough.
Source: Unsplash.
