Review: Saltine Crackers

Rating: 9/10

Purchase: Amazon

What do you think of when the word "cracker" is said? Do you think of a golden brown, round Ritz? Or a small pale oyster cracker? Or perhaps a Cheez-it? Or maybe you think of some white guy behind a desk, denying minorities loans?

I don't think any of those are the first to come to mind. The first for me is the square, pale with light spots of browning, salted crackers. The saltine cracker AKA the soda cracker.

Alone, it is dry, overly salted but otherwise tasteless. Sitting in our cupboards for months, and occasionally years, at a time. Yet, when the time comes, it steps forward, ever humble to be the starchy delivery system to a variety of foods. Peanut butter, cheese, jams & jellies, dips, and of course, soups. Soups & crackers, the king pairing for many. Perhaps only overtaken by peanut butter & chocolate.

Alone the cracker does not shine. However, that is on a healthy day. On a sick day, especially with stomach trouble, the blandness of the cracker is a super power. How many times have I reached for crackers and ginger ale at the start of my illness? Only graduating to soups with crackers as I recovered.

Look now, does a box sit in your pantry? Do they sit endlessly in the pantries of your parents or grandparents? Does your child reach for a cracker while waiting for the main course to arrive? Happily gnawing on a corner?

Oh, the cracker! A staple of Americana food. They are the descendants of hardtacks and biscuits1. Just as we are the descendants of travelers and immigrants. The cracker nourishes us now as the biscuit nourished our forefathers then.

Where would we be without the mighty saltine? Hungry, stumbling and weak.

When we look at the saltine cracker, let us remember that it doesn't always take grand and flashy moments to change the world. Steadiness and consistency can too as long you are generous with what you have been given.

God save the saltine cracker. As American as apple pie!