Animal Cracker
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An animal cracker is a particular type of cracker, baked in the shape of an animal, usually an animal either at a zoo or a circus, such as a
lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body (biology), body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the ...
, a
tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large Felidae, cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is ...
, a
bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...
, or an
elephant Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...
. The most common variety is light-colored and slightly sweet, but darker chocolate-flavored and colorful frosted varieties are also sold. Although animal crackers tend to be sweet in flavor like cookies, they are made with a layered dough like crackers and are marketed as crackers and not cookies.


History

In the late 19th century, animal-shaped crackers called "Animals" were imported from England to the United States. The demand for these crackers grew to the point that bakers began to produce them domestically. Stauffer's Biscuit Company produced their first batch of animal crackers in
York, Pennsylvania York is a city in York County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. Located in South Central Pennsylvania, the city's population was 44,800 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in ...
, in 1871. Other domestic bakeries, including the Dozier-Weyl Cracker Company of St. Louis, and the Holmes and Coutts Company of
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
, were the predecessors of the National Biscuit Company, today's "Nabisco Brands". Animal biscuit crackers were made and distributed under the National Biscuit Company banner. In 1902, animal crackers officially became known as "Barnum's Animals" and evoked the familiar circus theme of the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Later in 1902, the now-familiar box was designed for the Christmas season with the innovative idea of attaching a string to hang from the Christmas tree. Until that time, crackers were generally sold only in bulk (the proverbial "cracker barrel") or in large tins. These small cartons, which retailed for 5 cents at the time of their release, were a big hit and are still sold today. The number and variety contained in each box has varied over the years. In total, 53 different animals have been represented by animal crackers since 1902. In its current incarnation, each package contains 22 cookies consisting of a variety of animals. The most recent addition, the
koala The koala (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), sometimes inaccurately called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only Extant taxon, extant representative of the Family (biology), family ''Phascolar ...
, was added in September 2002 after being chosen by consumer votes, beating out the penguin, walrus and cobra. In 1948, the company changed the product name to its current designation of "Barnum's Animals Crackers". In 1958, production methods changed to improve the cookies' visual details. Until then, animal shapes were stamped out of a dough sheet by a cutter. This produced outlines with little sophistication. By installing rotary dies, bakers can actually engrave details onto each cookie, creating a more intricate design. The rotary dies are still used today. Barnum's Animals Crackers are produced in a bakery at
Fair Lawn, New Jersey Fair Lawn is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, and a bedroom community, bedroom suburb located northwest of New York City. As of the 2020 United States census, the boro ...
, by Nabisco Brands. More than 40 million packages of Barnum's Animals Crackers are sold each year, both in the United States and exported to 17 countries worldwide. The cookies are baked in a -long traveling band oven. They are in the oven for about four minutes and are baked at the rate of 12,000 per minute. About 15,000 cartons and 330,000 cookies are produced in a single shift, using some of string on the packages. This runs to nearly of string a year. Those bright circus boxes are produced in three colors—red, blue, and yellow—with different variety of animals on each. In August 2018, Mondelez International (the parent company of Nabisco) released a new design for its Barnum's Animals Crackers boxes in the United States, showing the animals freed from their traditional circus boxcar cages. This design change was made in consultation with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), one year after the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus ceased operations. The new design shows a zebra, lion, elephant, giraffe and gorilla together in an African landscape.


Varieties

In total, 53 different animals have been featured in Barnum's Animals Crackers since 1902. The current cookies are
bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...
,
bison A bison (: bison) is a large bovine in the genus ''Bison'' (from Greek, meaning 'wild ox') within the tribe Bovini. Two extant taxon, extant and numerous extinction, extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American ...
, camel,
cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, ''Help:Pronunciation respelling key, KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North America, North, Central America, Cent ...
,
elephant Elephants are the largest living land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant ('' Loxodonta africana''), the African forest elephant (''L. cyclotis''), and the Asian elephant ('' Elephas maximus ...
, giraffe, gorilla, hippopotamus, hyena, kangaroo,
koala The koala (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), sometimes inaccurately called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only Extant taxon, extant representative of the Family (biology), family ''Phascolar ...
,
lion The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body (biology), body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the ...
, monkey, rhinoceros, seal, sheep,
tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large Felidae, cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is ...
, and zebra. To celebrate its 100th anniversary, Barnum's added the
koala The koala (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), sometimes inaccurately called the koala bear, is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only Extant taxon, extant representative of the Family (biology), family ''Phascolar ...
to the menagerie in September 2002. Stauffer's animal crackers include bear, bison, camel, cow, cat,
donkey The donkey or ass is a domesticated equine. It derives from the African wild ass, ''Equus africanus'', and may be classified either as a subspecies thereof, ''Equus africanus asinus'', or as a separate species, ''Equus asinus''. It was domes ...
, elephant, hippopotamus,
horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...
, lion, mountain goat, rhinoceros, and tiger. They are made in plain (vanilla), chocolate graham, cinnamon graham, " cotton candy" and icing-covered variants, as well as "breakfast cookies" made with oats, almonds, cranberries, and pomegranate. Austin Zoo Animal Crackers currently feature bear, camel, elephant, lion, monkey, owl, penguin, rabbit, ram, rhino,
turtle Turtles are reptiles of the order (biology), order Testudines, characterized by a special turtle shell, shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Crypt ...
, and zebra. Cadbury's Animals are chocolate coated and feature crocodile, elephant, hippo, monkey, lion, tiger, and toucan.


Manufacturers

Nabisco makes Barnum's Animals Crackers, with their distinctive package art of a circus wagon fitted out as a cage and animals within it. "Barnum" refers to the famous showman and circus entrepreneur P. T. Barnum, but Nabisco does not pay a licensing fee to Barnum and Bailey Circus. The product actually says "Barnum's Animals", subtitled "Crackers". Half of the wheels are printed on the large sides of the box but at one time the printed wheels continued to the bottom of the box, and were partially perforated along their outline, which allowed punching the wheels out and standing the wagon to stand on its wheels. Responding to requests from PETA, in August 2018 Nabisco released new package art displaying the animals roaming free. Stauffer Biscuit Company of
York, Pennsylvania York is a city in York County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. Located in South Central Pennsylvania, the city's population was 44,800 at the time of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in ...
, a Japanese company owned by Meiji, also has a line of animal crackers, which are now distributed by several major discount retailers. Their use of the spices nutmeg and mace give the basic animal cracker a slightly different character from the Nabisco crackers. Former owner Rodney Stauffer now has his own company, Rodney's Animal Crackers, that also produces animal crackers. Austin, a division of the Keebler Company, also makes a variety of animal crackers. The Austin variety has similar nutritional content and animal shapes. The Austin product is labeled under the name of the Kellogg Company, which acquired Keebler in 2001. Mother’s Bakery, founded in New Jersey in 1914, has sold varieties of animal crackers that they market as “Circus Animal Cookies”, and come in pink and white frosting with the shapes of camels, hippos and lions, among others. Mother's Original Circus Animal Cookies are sprinkled with rainbow nonpareils and a variety of special runs themed for holidays are released annually, such as black cats on
Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...
. The Borden corporation also produced a brand of animal crackers, until the late 1970s. They came in a red box, which featured the famous Elsie the Cow logo. Market Square Food Company Inc. in Illinois has also produced its own brand of animal crackers since 1982. Its animal crackers are distributed by several major retailers throughout the United States and internationally. Sam's Club distributes animal crackers under its "Member's Mark" house brand. In the UK, Cadburys produce a range simply called "Animals". As noted above, these biscuits have a chocolate coating on one side. In
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, Bahlsen produces animal crackers under the Leibniz brand. In
New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
, Arnott's manufactures ''Iced Animals'', colourfully iced animal crackers.


In popular culture

* " I'm Just Wild About Animal Crackers" was recorded by
Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...
on June 21, 1926 and by Irving Aaronson & His Commanders with Phil Saxe doing the vocal for Victor on June 23, 1926. * '' Animal Crackers'' is the name of a 1930 Marx Brothers film. * A song sung by Shirley Temple in 1935, " Animal Crackers in My Soup", was used by many companies for advertising animal crackers. * Animal crackers are the subject of Melanie Safka's 1968 novelty hit song "Animal Crackers". * They are the namesake of Eric Whitacre's popular choral piece ''Animal Crackers'' (2002–2009). * In the 2007 film ''
Zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac ...
'', Inspector Dave Toschi (portrayed by Mark Ruffalo) is frequently seen snacking on animal crackers. The real life Toschi was known for this habit as well. * '' Animal Crackers'' is also the name of a 2017 animated film, which revolves around magical animal crackers that turn people into the animal each cracker is shaped like.


See also

* List of crackers * Teddy Grahams * Goldfish * Hello Panda * Koala's March


References


External links


Animal Crackers
– The largest animal crackers resource in the world, complete with recipes and articles. {{DEFAULTSORT:Animal Cracker 1871 introductions Crackers (food) Cookies Food for children