Animal cracker

Ananimal crackeris a particular type ofcracker, baked in the shape of an animal, usually an animal either at azooor acircus, such as alion, atiger, abear, or anelephant. 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.
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 inYork, Pennsylvania, in 1871.Other domestic bakeries, including the Dozier-Weyl Cracker Company ofSt. Louis, and the Holmes and Coutts Company ofNew York City, were the predecessors of theNational 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 theBarnum 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, thekoala, was added in September 2002 after being chosen by consumer votes, beating out thepenguin,walrusandcobra.
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 installingrotary 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 atFair Lawn, New Jersey, 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 300-foot (91 m)-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 30 miles (48 km) of string on the packages. This runs to nearly 8,000 miles (13,000 km) 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 withPeople for the Ethical Treatment of Animals(PETA), one year after theRingling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circusceased operations. The new design shows a zebra, lion, elephant, giraffe and gorilla together in an African landscape.
In total, 53different animals have been featured in Barnum's Animals Crackers since 1902. The current cookies arebear,bison,camel,cougar,elephant,giraffe,gorilla,hippopotamus,hyena,kangaroo,koala,lion,monkey,rhinoceros,seal,sheep,tiger, andzebra.To celebrate its 100th anniversary, Barnum's added thekoalato the menagerie in September 2002.
Stauffer's animal crackers include bear, bison, camel,cow,cat,donkey, elephant, hippopotamus,horse, lion,mountain goat, rhinoceros, and tiger. They are made in plain (vanilla), chocolate graham, cinnamon graham, "cotton candy" andicing-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, and zebra.
CadburysAnimals are chocolate coated and featurecrocodile, elephant, hippo, monkey, lion, tiger, andtoucan.
Nabiscomakes 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 entrepreneurP. T. Barnum, but Nabisco does not pay a licensing fee toBarnum 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 ofYork, Pennsylvania, a Japanese company owned byMeiji, also has a line of animal crackers, which are now distributed by several major discount retailers. Their use of the spicesnutmeg and macegive the basic animal cracker a slightly different character from the Nabisco crackers. Former owner Rodney Stauffernow has his own company, Rodney's Animal Crackers, that also produces animal crackers.
Austin, a division of theKeebler 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 theKellogg 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 AnimalCookies”, 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 rainbownonpareilsand a variety of special runs themed for holidays are released annually, such as black cats onHalloween.
TheBordencorporation also produced a brand of animal crackers, until the late 1970s. They came in a red box, which featured the famousElsie the Cowlogo.
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 Clubdistributes animal crackers under its "Member's Mark" house brand.
In theUK,Cadburysproduce a range simply called "Animals".As noted above, thesebiscuitshave achocolatecoating on one side.
InGermany,Bahlsenproduces animal crackers under the Leibniz brand.
InNew Zealand,Arnott'smanufacturesIced Animals, colourfully iced animal crackers.