Saltine cracker

Saltine cracker

A saltine or soda cracker is a thin, usually square cracker made from white flour, shortening, yeast, and baking soda, with some varieties lightly sprinkled with coarse salt. It has perforations throughout its surface, to allow steam to escape for uniform rising, and along the edges, as individual crackers are broken from larger sheets during manufacture. It has a very dry and crisp texture, as it is made with less shortening than other varieties such as Ritz crackers.

Saltines are often eaten as a light snack, with cheese or peanut butter. They may also be dipped in stews, chilis, soups or dips, or crumbled into salads. Typically they are sold in boxes containing two to four stacks of crackers wrapped in a sleeve of waxed paper or plastic. In restaurants, they are found in small wrapped packets of two crackers, which generally accompany soup or salad.

Saltines make a good and convenient home remedy. They are consumed by many in order ease nausea and to settle an upset stomach. Pregnant women are also usually advised to snack on saltines.

Some familiar brand names of saltine crackers in the United States are Nabisco's "Premium" and Keebler's "Zesta". In addition, low sodium saltines as well as "unsalted top" versions are commonly available. Also available in stores are wheat saltines.

In the United States, the word "saltine" was originally registered as a trademark by Nabisco, but it lost trademark protection after the term began to be used generically to refer to similar crackers. In Australia, Arnott's Biscuits Holdings still holds a trademark on the name "Saltine".

Baking process

Saltines have been compared to hardtack, a simple unleavened cracker or biscuit made from flour, water, and salt. However, unlike hardtack, saltines actually do include yeast as one of their ingredients. Soda crackers are a leavened bread that is allowed to rise for twenty to thirty hours. After the rise, alkaline soda is added to neutralize the excessive acidity produced by the action of the yeast. The dough is allowed to rest for three to four more hours, to relax the gluten, before being rolled in layers and baked.

Myths

Myths about Saltine crackers are that you cannot eat 6 of them in 1 minute.

ee also

*Cracker
*Genericized trademark

External links

* [http://www.nabiscoworld.com/Brands/brandlist.aspx?SiteId=1&CatalogType=1&BrandKey=premium&BrandLink=/premium/&BrandId=80&PageNo=1 Nabisco's Premium line of cracker products]
* [http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-001-02s059j.html saltine nutrition information]
* [http://www.recipesource.com/munchies/snacks/00/rec0036.html recipe for traditional soda crackers]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • saltine cracker — …   Useful english dictionary

  • Cracker (food) — This article is about the oven baked food item. For the unrelated disparaging term, see Cracker (pejorative) Water biscuit crackers plain and as part of a snack in Singapore, with herring and garlic cream topping and a parsley garnish …   Wikipedia

  • saltine — ☆ saltine [sôl tēn′ ] n. [ SALT + INE3] a flat, crisp cracker with grains of salt baked into its surface …   English World dictionary

  • cracker — [n] hard, often salted, baked wafer biscuit, bun, cookie, hardtack, pretzel, rusk, saltine; concept 457 …   New thesaurus

  • cracker — I (Roget s IV) n. Syn. wafer, soda cracker, oyster cracker, biscuit, saltine, water biscuit, cream cracker, hardtack, sea biscuit, kn?ckebr?d (Swedish), Melba toast, matzo; see also bread 1 , cookie . II (Roget s 3 Superthesaurus) n. Sl. hacker.… …   English dictionary for students

  • cracker — Synonyms and related words: Brussels biscuit, Klaxon, Melba toast, backwoodsman, biscuit, boiler factory, boiler room, bone, briar hopper, brush ape, bull roarer, bushman, catcall, cherry bomb, clack, clacker, clam digger, clapper, cricket,… …   Moby Thesaurus

  • saltine — noun A thin, crisp, salted, white colored cracker, a soda cracker; the most common of all US crackers; soda biscuit …   Wiktionary

  • saltine — n. a white person. (A play on a kind of salted white cracker (biscuit). A cracker is a derogatory term for a white person.) □ What are those saltines doing in this neighborhood? …   Dictionary of American slang and colloquial expressions

  • saltine — noun a cracker sprinkled with salt before baking • Hypernyms: ↑cracker …   Useful english dictionary

  • saltine — noun Date: 1907 a thin crisp cracker usually sprinkled with salt …   New Collegiate Dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”