When I was young, the only crackers my mother bought were saltines and occasionall graham crackers (for a treat). Today there is usually a whole aisle in stores devoted entirely to crackers.

During most of the 1800s, people made their own crackers. They may have flavored them, but recipes in cookbooks didn’t mention it. In the latter part of the 1800s and early 1900s, crackers were sold in country stores. They were shipped in barrels to prevent them from breaking. Customers would scoop out what they wanted to buy and the storekeepers would put them in paper bags. The cracker barrel was often a meeting place where neighbors enjoyed socializing.

INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS:

CRACKERS
Rub six ounces of butter with two pounds of flour. Dissolve a couple of teaspoons of saleratus* in a wine glass* of milk, and strain it on to the flour. Add a teaspoon of salt, and milk enough to enable you to roll it out. Beat it with a rolling-pin for half an hour, pounding it out thin. Cut it into cakes with a tumbler, bake them about fifteen minutes, then take them from the oven. When the rest of your things are baked sufficiently, take them out, set in the crackers, and let them remain till baked hard and crispy.

*saleratus – an obsolete term for baking soda, a leavening agent consisting of potassium or sodium bicarbonate.
*wine glass – one-fourth cup.

CRACKERS
Sift into a pint of flour a heaping teaspoon of baking powder, four tablespoons of melted butter, one-half teaspoon salt, the white of an egg beaten, and one cup of milk. Mix it with more flour, enough to make a very stiff dough, as stiff as can be rolled out. Pounded and knead it for a long time. Roll very thin like pie crust and cut out either round or square. Bake a light brown.

Stale crackers are made crisp and better by placing them in the oven a few moments before they are needed for the table..

WHOLE WHEAT CRISPS 
Take one cup rich cream, two tablespoons sugar, a pinch of salt, and two cups or enough to make a stiff dough of fine granulated, whole wheat flour. Beat well, and knead for fifteen minutes, first with a spoon until the batter becomes too thick, and then with the hands. Roll out very thin, cut into shapes with a biscuit cutter, and bake on floured tins in a very hot oven.*

*quick or hot oven – about 400-450 degrees Fahrenheit. 

SODA CRACKERS
1 quart of flour
1 tablespoon of lard and butter mixed
1 egg
A little salt
1 teaspoon of soda,* sifted into the flour.

Make a stiff paste with buttermilk, beat until light, roll tolerably thin, cut in squares, prick with a fork, and bake quickly.

*soda – baking soda.

HUNTSVILLE CRACKERS
Take a lump of risen dough, as large as your double fist, and a heaping teaspoon of loaf sugar, beaten with the yolk of an egg. Mix with the dough a lump of butter the size of a hen’s egg and an equal quantity of lard, and a tablespoon of soda, dissolved in a cup of cream. Beat a long time, stirring in flour all the while, till quite stiff. Roll out, cut in square cakes and bake in a brisk oven.*

• also hot or quick oven – about 400-450 degrees Fahrenheit.

FRENCH CRACKERS
To six eggs, add twelve tablespoons sweet milk*, six tablespoons butter, and one-half teaspoon soda. Mold [mix]with flour, pounding and working half an hour. Roll it thin and bake with a rather quick fire.

*sweet milk – whole milk; it was called sweet milk to distinguish it from buttermilk.

LITCHFIELD CRACKERS
To one pint of cold milk, put a piece of butter the size of an egg, one teaspoon salt, and one egg. Rub the butter into a quart of flour, then add the egg and milk. Knead in more flour until it is as stiff as it can possibly be made. Pound it with an iron pestle, or the broad end of a flat-iron,* for at least one hour. Then roll it very thin, cut it into rounds, prick, and bake in a quick oven, twelve or fifteen minutes.

*flat-iron – a heavy metal iron heated by a fire or on a stove.

BUTTER CRACKERS
1 quart of flour
3 tablespoonfuls butter
1/2 teaspoon soda, dissolved in hot water
1 saltspoon salt
2 cups sweet milk

Rub the butter into the flour, or, what is better, cut it up with a knife or chopper, as you do in pastry. Add the salt, milk, and soda, mixing well. Work into a ball, lay upon a floured board, and beat with a rolling-pin half an hour, turning and shifting the mass often. Roll into an even sheet, a quarter of an inch thick, or less, prick deeply with a fork, and bake hard in a moderate oven.* Hang them up in a muslin bag in the kitchen for two days to dry.

*moderate oven – about 350-400 degrees Fahrenheit.

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