If you have fond memories of growing up and roasting s’mores by the campfire, you have Sylvester Graham, who died on this day in 1851, to thank. The preacher was an aggressive advocate for temperance and vegetarianism as part of a pious lifestyle. The latter was controversial, as medical opinion at the time held that avoiding the scourge of cholera required not eating vegetables. He also railed against the use of chemical additives in food, notably in bread. Health nuts loved him, but butchers, bakers, and doctors hated him. His movement, dubbed Grahamism, created a whole new wave of fad foods bearing his name, including the cracker.
The cracker was made of flour, oil, shortening, molasses, and salt. It grew in popularity until the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco, for short) started mass producing them in the late 1800s. Within a few decades, people were making recipes stacking crackers, Hershey’s chocolate, and marshmallows; the combo was dubbed the “some more” by Girl Scouts by the mid-1920s. Graham certainly would not have approved of the modern s’more; the crackers now contain seasonings (he thought those were evil) and all three contain sugar (also evil).
