Food Holidays: April 18th, 2022

Good evening, Happy Easter to you and yours. I would like to share our series featuring Food Holidays: April 18th, 2022. I don’t know about you, but I love Barnum’s Animal Crackers, but I miss the box we had as kids when the Animals were in cages. How about you?

National Animal Crackers Day

1. The famous Barnum’s Animal Crackers box was originally a Christmas Ornament hung by a string. The string can still be found on boxes.
2. A box of Animal Crackers sold for 5 cents in 1902.
3. Animal Crackers originated in England where they were known as Animal Biscuits.
4. 54 different Animals have been created as Animal Crackers. The most popular brand, Barnum’s Animal Crackers, has featured 37 different Animals since 1902.
5. The most recent addition to the Barnum’s Animal Crackers is the Koala bear.

Fun Fact:

Over the years, the only ones that have survived the entire lifetime line of the product are Bears, Elephants, Lions and Tigers.

Shirley Temple sang “Animal crackers in my Soup, Monkeys and Rabbits loop the loop,”, but Rabbits never found their way into a box of Barnum’s Animal Crackers.

The name referred to P. T. Barnum (1810-1891), the famous Circus owner and showman.

Who among us can resist the temptation to indulge in a handful of the iconic treats from our childhood? As we celebrate National Animal Crackers Day on April 18th? Animal Crackers are arguably one of the best-recognized food products on the planet today. Who knew that the little menagerie of Zoo and Circus creatures that delighted us as children would later become one of our fondest childhood memories?

HISTORY OF NATIONAL ANIMAL CRACKERS DAY

Animal Crackers have been part of American childhood memories since the late 1800s when Animal Crackers were first imported from England where Animal Crackers were invented. When recipes for the popular Animal-shaped Biscuits made their way to America, independent bakers began baking up herds of the Animals to meet growing demand.

The stampede of Animal Crackers out of grocery cracker barrels into American shopping baskets was well underway when Stauffer’s Biscuit Company began commercially producing their original recipe Circus Crackers in 1871. Stauffer’s unique baking process created a slightly sweet, crispy, Cracker-like Biscuit that dominated the growing Animal Cracker category for years. In 1902, the big competition arrived that transformed the Animal Cracker industry forever.

Although not first to market Animal Crackers in America, when the National Biscuit Company, Nabisco, introduced their brand of Animal Crackers packaged in small boxes that looked like P.T. Barnum Circus Train Cars, they quickly became the most popular brand of Animal Crackers in America. Their ingenious Circus-train-themed packages were initially sold as Christmas Tree ornaments. The colorful boxes sporting exotic Animals in Circus train cars with a string for hanging on the tree were an immediate hit with children who begged for boxes of Animals to carry around by a string. When all the Animals in a box had been devoured, children filled the Circus car boxes with childhood treasures, creating an unexpected shelf-life extension and bonus marketing for the Barnum’s Animals brand. 

But not all Animal Crackers are created equal, and despite the popularity and fast ascension of Nabisco’s Barnum’s Animals to the iconic childhood Cookie. Many people still preferred the original Stauffer’s Animal Crackers recipe. The difference in texture and flavor between the two brands is distinctive. There remains a continued strong market for both brands of Animal Crackers to this day.  

Stauffer’s Biscuit Company still produces Original Animal Crackers using the original 1871 recipe. Their strategy has been to produce a consistently crisp, layered Dough Cracker that is more like a traditional English Biscuit, and less sweet than a Cookie. 

Nabisco still produces its colorful, wild Animal-themed, small-carton packaging that appeals to young children. Nabisco’s Animal Crackers are a little, sweeter. Softer in texture than a Cracker or Biscuit. Some Animal Cracker aficionados would argue that Nabisco’s Barnum’s Animal Crackers are actually Animal Cookies, not Crackers. Nabisco changed the name of their product from Barnum’s Animals to Barnum’s Animal Crackers in 1948, a move probably not necessary to remain the category leader which is evidenced by the product’s fast rise to fame and continued appeal to children.  

Whether you prefer the crispy Biscuit-like Crackers or the sweeter, softer Cookie-like variety, on National Animal Crackers Day, we’re of the notion that the more Animals in the parade, the merrier. We’re not sure exactly when Animal Crackers were first commemorated with their own special date on the calendar, but on National Animal Crackers Day we are all-in and all about Animal Crackers on parade.

NATIONAL ANIMAL CRACKERS DAY ACTIVITIES

1. Instead of penny-ante Poker, why not raise the stakes in today’s game and play for Animal Crackers?
2. If you want to spread some love and see smiles break out on National Animal Crackers Day, greet everyone you meet with a little box of Animal Crackers.
3. Have you ever wondered which beverages pair best with Animal Crackers? National Animal Crackers Day is a good day to investigate with good old-fashioned unscientific research. Start your day by dunking Lions, Tigers, and Bears in your cup of Coffee. Then dunk abundantly throughout the day using Milk, or any beverage your heart desires. After a day of delicious dunking, conclude it with the last of your Animal friends dunked in your favorite adult beverage. Post your results on social media.

5 FACTS ABOUT ANIMAL CRACKERS

1. In the 1935 movie “Curly Top,” adorable child movie star Shirley Temple sang about Animal Crackers in her Soup, including “Monkeys and Rabbits. Rabbits have never been featured in Animal Crackers that we are aware of.
2. Boxes of Nabisco Barnum’s Animal Crackers have featured 37 different animals over the years. Nabisco’s menagerie currently includes 19 Animals, with the last addition being the Koala.
3. For those of us who have trouble discerning Animals by Cracker shape there is help. Stauffer’s Biscuit Company has a “Biscuit Animal Identifier” page on their website with photos of the different Animals.
4. According to Stauffer’s Biscuit Company, the tiny holes in their Animal Crackers are called ‘dockers,’ which allow air to escape the Crackers during the rising process, helping the Crackers to retain the Animal shape.
5. Under pressure from Animal Activist Group PETA, Nabisco retired its nostalgic Circus-Train-Themed box in 2016 and replaced it with a new theme that debuted in 2018.

WHY PEOPLE LOVE NATIONAL ANIMAL CRACKERS DAY

1. Animal Crackers are the quintessential snack. Animal Crackers have a dependable crunch. They are not too sweet but just sweet enough to satisfy your sweet tooth.
2. While “dunkability” may not be a word in the dictionary, we love the original recipe Animal Crackers for their dunkability. Animal Crackers dunk well in Coffee or Milk. Animal Crackers absorb just enough liquid without getting soggy and falling apart.
3. Most of us have had a parade of Animal Crackers on a plate or in the iconic Circus-Themed box floating among our childhood memories. Animal Crackers make us smile as we are reminded of less complicated, days from our childhood.

Thank you,

Glenda, Charlie and David Cates