Graham Crackers - History of Graham Crackers

Graham Crackers today are known as crunchy, sweet, and necessary to support a recently roasted s'more. However, the original recipe of the cracker was surprisingly designed to be a health food.

Originally conceived as part of a diet developed by the Reverend Sylvester Graham of Connecticut, the Graham cracker was consumed as a part of an extremely restrictive, bland diet. Graham's beliefs included an idea that sugary, spicy, or otherwise flavorful foods led to an increased appetite for evil human desires. Therefore, he encouraged the sole consumption of bland, tasteless food among his followers.

The Reverend Graham's followers, otherwise known as Grahamites, had a diet that only included breads and crackers made from graham flour. This was a flavorless, but high protein meal, which could be ground down and used for baking. As the modern Graham cracker is made from white flour, which the Reverend vehemently opposed, it is quite different from the original recipe consumed by Grahamites. Further, the modern day version is coated with sugar, and definitely wouldn't measure up to these strict standards.

Although once restricted to the small group of Grahamite, the sugary additions to the Graham cracker has resulted in its spread across the country. However, the modern graham cracker hardly resembles its precursor form.

Although the original Graham cracker recipe was unsuccessful in reaching the far edges of the country, Graham's ideas about bland food did reach another young gentleman who has had a large influence on the breakfast food industry.

John Harvey Kellogg came across Graham's theories about bland food and through they were extremely merited. These ideas then encouraged Kellogg to develop corn flakes. Today, the basic corn flake recipe continues to resemble that of Kellogg's original, bland design. Therefore, although Graham's version of a Graham cracker disappeared to history, his ideas about bland food consumption did survive in an extremely widespread breakfast cereal.