Animal Crackers

Available in the Regular or Iced versions.

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Animal Crackers are a popular children's snack. They are are crackers in the shape of animals packaged in a small box with a string handle. We have the regular and iced versions.

Stauffer’s Animal Crackers, the original, are made in the shape of 13 different animals: elephant, hippo, camel, bear, buffalo, lion, goat, horse, donkey, cow, rhino, tiger and cat (no dog!).

Watch an Old Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or76sI-ESgg

History

It’s believed that the D.F. Stauffer Biscuit Company in York, Pennsylvania made the first Animal Crackers in the United States in 1871. They had been introduced from England shortly before. Other US bakeries, including Nabisco Brands, have made them over the years.

For the Christmas season in 1902, Barnum’s Animal Crackers by Nabisco Brands introduced its familiar box with the circus animal cages and string. They added the string so it could be hung on a Christmas tree. The older boxes had wheels on the bottom of the box which were perforated. They could be cut out and bent straight, thus giving the circus car full wheels. Before this box, Animal Crackers were sold from bulk “cracker barrels.”

There is a debate over whether these are animal crackers or animal cookies. Come argue that Nabisco’s are cookies because they are soft and Stauffer’s are crackers because they are made in layers like a cracker and are not soft.

Stauffer Biscuit Company uses nutmeg and mace in their recipe which makes them taste a little different than the Nabisco brand.

Note that the box of Nabisco Animal Crackers actually says “Barnum’s Animals” with the word “Crackers” as a subtitle below it. And you will find only circus animals in the box.

Borden Corporation made Animal Crackers until the late 1970s. The box was red with the famous Elsie the Cow’s picture on it.