| Oyster crackers | |
| Alternate Name: | water cracker |
| Country: | United States |
| Region: | Northeast |
| Creator: | Westminster Cracker Company |
| Type: | Cracker |
| Main Ingredient: | Enriched flour, shortening, leavening (baking powder), yeast, sugar, salt |
Oyster crackers are small, salted crackers, typically rounds about 15frac=8NaNfrac=8 in diameter, although a slightly smaller hexagonal variety is also common. Oyster crackers are often served with oyster stew and clam chowder and have a flavor similar to saltine crackers.
Oyster crackers are popular in the northeastern United States, where they are served as an accompaniment to soup, and in the Cincinnati area, where they are frequently served with that city's distinctive chili. In New England, oyster crackers are served with oyster stew and chowders. Plain oyster crackers are sometimes seasoned with various spices or pepper sauce and served as an appetizer or snack. Oyster crackers have a taste similar to saltine crackers, but usually are less salty. In other areas of the United States, they are among the choices for crackers with soup or salads and are often available in restaurants in single serving packages.
Many different companies produce oyster crackers with different combinations of shortenings and other ingredients, but retaining the same general shape and size.
The origin of the term "oyster cracker" is unclear, but it may be that they were originally served with oyster stew or clam chowder or possibly that they look somewhat like an oyster in its shell.[1] Other names include "water cracker," "Philadelphia cracker," and "Trenton cracker".[2]
The Westminster Cracker Company, currently of Rutland, Vermont, has been making oyster crackers since 1828.[3] However, a counterclaim credits Adam Exton with inventing the oyster cracker nearly 18 years later.
Adam Exton, a baker in Trenton, New Jersey, immigrated to America from Lancashire, England, in 1842. In Trenton, Exton opened a cake and cracker bakery with his brother-in-law, Richard Aspden, in 1846. Although Aspden died the following year, Exton continued with the bakery (the "Exton Cracker Bakery" or "Adam Exton & Co."). He invented a machine that rolled and docked pastry and solved the sanitary problems of hand-rolling crackers.
The history of the oyster cracker was related by Exton's nephew, also named Adam Exton, in the Trenton Evening Times newspaper on May 31, 1917:
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