Graham Cracker History

Graham Cracker History – We can thank American nutritionist and religious teacher Sylvester Graham for graham crackers. However, the graham crackers we know today are nothing like the ones he first invented. Library of Congress / HowStuffWorks

Let’s face it: One of the best things about the campfire is making s’mores – an American food that consists of a square of melted chocolate pressed between toasted marshmallows and two crunchy graham crackers. But have you ever wondered why the graham cracker was invented or where the name graham cracker came from?

Graham Cracker History

It turns out that graham crackers are a health food that was invented in the 1830s by the advice of the Reverend Sylvester Graham, an American food reformer and religious guru who, by all accounts, bought Surprised by what would pass for a graham cracker today.

Graham Cracker History Sylvester Graham Diet Background

“The closest thing [to the original graham cracker] that exists today is probably the Pilot Cracker or the Hardtack,” says New York-based food historian Sarah Wasberg Johnson. “This is the type of cracker that is commercialized and available in stores or supermarkets.”

In other words, the original graham cracker bears little resemblance to the graham cracker we enjoy today which is usually made with whole wheat flour, high fructose corn syrup and a drizzle of commercial honey. Instead, the original graham cracker called ingredients such as “graham flour,” a form of coarsely ground wheat made by grinding the endosperm of winter wheat into a fine powder. It has a smooth texture, nutty flavor and is gluten-free.

“It’s funny of all the things he says about improving his health, that’s something that’s widely used and has his name on it,” Johnson said. “[Graham flour] was accepted by people who probably didn’t know about it until the end of the 19th century and continued into the 20th century. You hear about graham crackers and graham bread in cookbooks from the 1940s and 1950s.”

Graham is warned by the over-processing and enrichment of wheat flour, and believes that the loss of fiber and other nutrients in white flour will harm the consumer’s health. clean. In 1837, Graham published a book called “A treatise on bread and bread making” and was praised by the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson as “the prophet of bran bread.”

Why Are There Holes In Crackers?

Graham was an early supporter and follower of the vegetarian diet, founding the American Vegetarian Society in the 1850s. Graham also believed in eating junk food and limiting sugar and all processed food. The Presbyterian minister, Graham was a member of the crisis, not only to drink alcohol but also from the use of yeast in baking.

“I think the reason why graham crackers have become a ‘thing’ is because they’re not toxic, they don’t have brewer’s yeast in them,” Johnson said. “The temperance movement is a big part of the Protestantism, but people of a really fanatical nature, like Graham, believe that you can not use yeast because yeast makes alcohol.”

In addition to writing about food, Graham also taught a revolutionary diet, which is difficult to separate from his beliefs. He had thousands of followers, called Grahamites. Allen White, Seventh Day Adventist, and Seventh Day Adventist Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, who with his brother Will developed corn flakes and founded Kellogg’s. .

Graham flour is made by finely grinding the endosperm of winter wheat and mixing it with bran and wheat. It has a smooth texture, nutty flavor and is gluten-free. The original graham cracker was made with this flour.

Graham Cracker Cookie Bars Story

Graham’s diet was associated with not only physical, but also moral and spiritual health. It encourages daily bathing, brushing, and regular meals three times a day. But Graham also believes that sexual desire is destructive to life. He believes that sex should be beneficial for children and that enjoying food is a sin. Johnson says that many of Graham’s health recommendations — take warm baths, avoid alcohol, and don’t eat meat, sugar, or processed foods — are similar to those taken by self-flagellating men in the Middle Ages after the plague. .

“There were many changes to Graham’s health system in the 19th century due to the cholera and typhoid epidemics,” Johnson said. “That’s where water treatment comes in, and the importance of health and hygiene to avoid the lifestyle that people think will lead to disease.”

Progress, technological change and new urban growth bring changes to society, not everyone agrees, said Johnson. Graham was concerned about the dangers to health and the food industry as people moved from the farms to the cities, but Graham’s thinking and eating habits were not good. making his lasting power as a pioneer of American healthy eating.

“It’s believed that there’s less social interaction to behave if you move to the city, where you don’t know everybody,” Johnson said. “A lot of his ideas are about management and change and how to make decisions in times of crisis. He took away a lot of the joys of life, eating , sleep together, sleep and shower, so his advice is not really adopted.

Whole Wheat Graham Crackers Recipe

“Part of it is reconciliation, part of it is self-sacrifice, who wants to sleep on the board if you don’t have it, who wants to take a cold shower if you don’t have it? But graham flour, especially if you just use ground whole wheat, it’s delicious. It’s really good and more than white flour, I can see why it sticks “

Graham died in 1851 at the age of 57 of complications from receiving an opium enema at the doctor’s order. There are reports that at the end of his life he tried to reverse his diabetes by drinking alcohol and meat, according to his doctor’s advice, thus breaking his diet drink.

Featured antivirus software from HowStuffWorks and TotalAV Security Try our crossword puzzles! Can you solve this puzzle? One in 3 cases of cholera spread worldwide during that time, causing death and chaos in the United States. During that season, Sylvester Graham found audiences eager to hear his message of health through clean eating and living. Washington Post/Getty Images Show more Show less

History is full of amazing panoply of people. There are heroes and villains, saints and villains – not to mention a healthy dose of kooks, lunatics and crackpots. This is the story of one of them and the things he (indirectly) gave us.

Graham Cracker Gingerbread House

By the time you read this, many boxes containing this will have been purchased. It will be given to countless children as a snack. Maybe a camper or two will use it as a fire remedy.

And it is all thanks to a prodigy named Sylvester Graham. To understand this unique character, you must first understand his unique upbringing. Some men, he would say, are born to cook. Others have given importance to cooking them. Graham is the latter.

Born the last of 17 (yes – 17) children in Connecticut in 1794, his father was 72 and his mother was mentally unstable. The father died two years later, and little Graham was returned from one relative to another. One runs a warehouse, where the boy works to earn his keep. Seeing drunkenness up close (and possibly having to wash away its negative effects) made him hate alcohol.

His many jobs as a sick child, farmer, cleaner and, ironically, a school teacher left a big difference in his education. Graham somehow realized that being a man of the cloth would cure his condition.

S’mores: More American Than Apple Pie

So, he attended Amherst Academy in his late 20s to follow his father and grandfather’s leadership. His classmates laughed at him for his fighting behavior, and a year later he was expelled from college, causing chaos.

After recovering in Rhode Island, he married the woman who nursed him back to health. He became an independent Presbyterian preacher. He began working with the Philadelphia Temperance Society in 1830 but left after six months to preach in various languages. That’s when things got really interesting.

The cholera epidemic was spreading throughout the world at that time, causing death and destruction to the United States. During that season, Graham found audiences eager to hear his message of health through clean eating and living. Some of his ideas were seen and far ahead of their time, and he can be called America’s first health minister.

Alcohol and tobacco are evil in his book. But so is the meat and, it is hard to believe, a staple.

Why Were Graham Crackers Invented? It’s A Crazy Reason

“Thousands of people will live their lives for years, and perhaps as long as they live, eating the most disgusting things imaginable like bread,” writes Graham.

That is

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