An Ode to the Oyster Cracker

It’s a late night in 2004 and I'm sitting cross-legged on my bed in my photograph-laden dorm room. My roommates and I have just returned from our Friday night ritual of happy-hour-turned-all-night-drinks at What Ale’s You in downtown Burlington, Vermont, and we’re rehashing the night's shenanigans. As usual, there is drunk food. One of my roommates tucks into a slice of pizza while the other two are feasting on late-night ramen. I, on the other hand, am making short work of an entire bag of Premium oyster crackers, like I always do after a night out.

With the ideal balance of salt and crunch, this tiny round cracker—the Saltine’s little sister—has been with me since I was young. They were as essential to my childhood as chasing down the ice cream truck’s siren song, watching Saturday morning cartoons, or circling my holiday wishlist items in the JCPenney catalog every December. Our pantry consistently had an open bag of Premium brand oyster crackers. Anytime a restaurant presents me with a packet of oyster crackers, into my purse it goes for future snacking. I’ll throw those bad boys in any and every kind of soup, eat them when traveling, or use them to make a zesty ranch-flavored snack mix. The cracker’s versatility is, in my opinion, unmatched.

I can’t remember when I first took note of my love for oyster crackers, but I also can’t recall a time in my life when there weren’t oyster crackers. And despite my passion for the snack after all these years, I’d never really considered its origin. While rooting through my pantry recently, I came across one of those little restaurant packets I had thrown in my purse to enjoy at a later date. My sheer level of excitement at this discovery prompted the question: How do I not know anything more about my beloved cracker?

It's impossible to really understand how the oyster cracker came to be without first diving into the history of this simple cracker style in general, and that history is a bit of a wild goose chase. Who are the oyster cracker’s ancestors and how far back did they really go?

The History of Hardtack, Water Crackers, and Saltines

My research via food encyclopedias, old recipes, and the depths of the internet led me to the hardtack, a type of a dense, unleavened, cracker-like biscuit that can be considered the great-great-great grandparent to the water cracker, the soda cracker, saltines, and eventually, the oyster cracker. Hardtack came into play on long sailings across the Atlantic Ocean before and through the 17th century, and during the Civil War when rations required a long shelf life and were made from accessible, cheap ingredients like flour, water, and salt. 

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest known use of the term hardtack dates back to the 1830s. The “tack” portion of the name comes from old British slang for “food.” Hardtack was used by sailors and soldiers in soups and stews, a tradition that went the distance with other crackers to the present day. The biscuit’s long shelf life made it an ideal staple in the years before refrigeration and canned food came along. Its dry consistency made it difficult to eat, however, requiring it to be softened before consumption, so soldiers would use the butt of their rifles to break up the hardtack and toss the dry broken bits of cracker into broth-based foods—this not only softened the hardtack but also thickened up the meal and made it more filling. The hardtack is what would later inspire other crackers, including the oyster cracker.

Unsurprisingly, hardtack didn’t appeal to the masses, so the cracker evolved into the much thinner—though still bland—water cracker. The brainchild of Josiah Bent in 1801, water crackers were also made of water and flour, but because they were thinner and baked longer, they were much lighter and crisper than the dense, biscuit-like hardtack. 

Soda crackers came on the scene shortly after, and the general public started to take note of this upgraded cracker. These crackers were named because of they included baking soda, which created a crunchier, more delicate product than the water cracker. The heat of the oven in combination with the baking soda produced tiny bubbles, creating an airy cracker that stood out from others. There are mentions of both soda and saltine crackers in the Records and Briefs of the United States Supreme Court from 1832. However, soda crackers didn’t quite take off until 1876, when mass production of them was begun by F.L. Sommer & Co in Missouri, leading to subsequent factories across the Midwest. Because its bitter flavor might be a turnoff, baking soda was omitted from the name, and soda crackers became saltines in the early 20th century, a nod to baking soda’s former name, baking salt.

The History of the Oyster Cracker

It’s easy to see the oyster cracker’s similarities in flavor and texture to saltines—including their similar uses in soups and stews—making it a fairly obvious conclusion that they’re part of this whole soda-saltine cracker family tree, just in miniature form.

The crispy disc’s definitive creator is a matter of controversy. According to the Smithsonian Institution, English immigrant Adam Exton started a bakery in Trenton, New Jersey, with his brother-in-law in 1847, setting the stage for the conception of the oyster cracker. Westminster Bakers Co. in Massachusetts, however, also claims to have gifted us this round treasure almost 20 years prior in 1828, when they introduced the New England “Common” Cracker, a larger catch-all cracker with simple ingredients: flour, water, baking soda, salt, and shortening (Exton’s cracker likely used butter). The Vermont Country Store notes that the Common Cracker’s long shelf life and versatility made it a staple for farm families, as they could store the crackers through the winter, just like hardtack. Bob Helland, the Chief Operating Officer of Westminster Bakers Co., tells me the company rolled out the original New England Oyster Cracker, a product that it continues to manufacture and sell today.

Why Are They Called Oyster Crackers?

While the name might suggest that actual oysters are on the ingredient list, they are not—the wheat flour-based crackers are named so because they were originally created as an accoutrement for traditional oyster stew, similar to the way hardtack was created for soups. With just a touch of butter, a few seasonings, milky broth, and briny oysters, the oyster stew was easy and cheap to prepare, making it a popular meal for many in the 1800s. Oysters were abundant in the Northeast, especially in New England, and the mollusks provided a solid substitute for the white fish typically used by Irish immigrants coming to America during that time. Recipes in The New Daily Food, a cookbook originally published in 1885, mention the use of “fine oyster crumbs” for topping oyster stew, “cracker crumbs” when making scalloped oysters, and “cracker crumbs” for fried oysters.

Between their original pairing with oyster stew and their resemblance to oyster shells, naming these crackers “oyster crackers” seemed like a no-brainer. In some regions like Philadelphia, however, the cracker took on different names. Exton’s Trenton, New Jersey bakery supplied so many Philadelphia restaurants that the oyster cracker came to be known as the “Philadelphia Cracker,” “Trenton cracker,” and “water cracker.” This is perhaps a likely nod that, again, connects the oyster cracker to its ancestor, the water cracker.

The Perfect Pairing of Oyster Crackers and Clam Chowder

A chat with Steve Gennodie, owner of Chatham Pier Fish Market on the Massachusetts coast, provided a bit more insight into the oyster cracker’s role in Northeastern cuisine, particularly with one of their most popular dishes: classic New England clam chowder. Because most of the chowders were thin back in the 17th century, people added crackers to the soup, which, like hardtack, helped to bulk it up, creating a thicker, heartier meal.

“The oyster cracker puts it over the edge and elevates it,” he says, calling it “the simplest item that makes the chowder come to life.” Throughout their nearly 200-year existence, oyster crackers have expanded as the topper of choice for chowders, soups, and stews, as well as chili, particularly in the Midwest. 

Where Does the Oyster Cracker Stand Now?

I spent some time scouring the internet to see just how many companies produce oyster crackers, and my search turned up fewer than expected. Instead of independent groups, it seemed that many small brands had been acquired by big-name brands like Kellogg's and Nabisco. My suspicion that fewer companies were making oyster crackers these days was confirmed in a conversation with Larry Rabin, President of Dairy State Foods—one of the biggest manufacturers of food service oyster crackers in the country. “There have been a lot of buyouts and mergers,” he shares. “It’s expensive to get into the business now.” 

Before my panic set in, Rabin reassured me that this did not signify the end of the oyster cracker—quite the opposite actually. “It's the chili chains that use most of the oyster crackers,” he says. “Cincinnati and Detroit are the biggest customers. In the Northeast, it's for the chowder.” 

In addition to floating atop the traditional soups, chilis, and stews of the world, oyster cracker-based snack mixes are making the rounds on social media platforms like TikTok, with creators making all kinds of flavors, including a Tajin-flavored oyster cracker mix. You can also find videos of a classic homemade ranch-flavor I enjoyed as a child, along with a firecracker mixture, which adds a spicy kick to the ranch thanks to red pepper flakes. Beyond social media, I’ve also seen different oyster cracker mixes in grocery stores, including a cheddar jalapeño flavored one, which wasn’t half bad.

The evolution of the cracker has even led Westminster Bakers Co. to fresh ventures in the beer industry. Their upcoming collaboration with Lord Hobo, a local Massachusetts brewery, will be released in August: the Lord Hobo New England Chowder IPA, which incorporates Westminster Oyster Crackers. 

I’m open to these new-fangled versions of my beloved cracker, but still prefer the traditional way of enjoying them. And according to Gennodie, I’m not the only one: “You can be in the middle of a hot summer, but the New England clam chowder is still the number one seller.”

Oyster crackers have gone the distance with me; they’ve seen me through my numerous late-nights in college and have accompanied me in every season of life thus far. Though the snack continues to evolve, the classic oyster cracker will remain a timeless treat—dressed down, up, or floating in my soup.