One thing that amuses me now is the look of the classic Nabisco Animal Crackers box. It's made to look like a cage wagon housing a tiger, a lion, a bison, and a polar bear. This is not an arrangement I'd count on to last. As the only herbivore of the bunch, the bison would be on everyone's menu, but it won't go down without a fight.
Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Munchable menagerie
Animal Crackers are ubiquitous. They're the classic snack if you want to keep toddlers occupied. And it feels like Animal Crackers have been around forever. Which, it turns out, isn't that far from the truth. Nabisco started marketing them in 1902, but Stauffer's had beaten them to the punch by about thirty years. And the idea goes back a good deal of time before that. It's interesting that they may be derived from Springerle, which are frequently gorgeous.
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The article from the 'snack stack' was very interesting, particularly when he delved into the deep history about the origins of animal crackers. It made sense that they originated in medieval Europe where they substituted for sacrificial animals until he brought up the fact that not only were the animals too precious to lose but also that sugar and honey were also extremely rare.
The much more recent Barnum Animals (wiki animal cracker) have been produced in 53 different species af animal). The most recent being a koala beating out a cobra. (!?)
I'd never really thought about Springerle either, always having figured they came from modern factories and bakeries that use huge stamping machines on cookie dough. Now it turns out one can actually purchase the rollers and moulds from amazon of all places. Well, they do sell just about everything, don't they? I do have a nice shortbread recipe in case you feel like setting up a little biscuit cart on Thayer St.
https://www.amazon.com/springerle-rolling-pin/s?k=springerle+rolling+pin
It's only natural that humans have been the inventors of unusual sweets ever since we first learned about trousers. He ended the post by saying that Springerle (I may just order myself one of those rolling pins) lead to all the other fancy confections, especially the Christmas ones. Do you remember peppar cookies? Inger and I would bake dozens of them and then we'd have a decorating party where everyone would fancify their own.
https://www.nordickitchenstories.co.uk/2017/11/30/pepparkakor-swedish-ginger-thins-recipe/
Jer's animal biscuit of choice is the humble Goldfish.
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