Tuesday, February 14, 2012

I Don't Understand The Song "Animal Crackers In My Soup".

 When I was a kid I used to have an Anne Murray record for kids. One of my favorite tracks from this record was "Animal Crackers in my Soup".  I never got the words right when I tried to sing it, generally mixing up the animals, but I loved this song.  I think the main reason I love this song is because I really love animal crackers.
 The problem is, now that I've grown up a little I've realized how much I really don't want these cookies in my soup.  The song is fun, but I don't really understand who would want to put cookies in their soup, it sounds kind of gross.  It got me thinking, was there a time when "Animal Crackers" were actually savory like crackers, and not sweet like cookies?
I did a little research and it appears that there have been many different  recipes for these cookies/crackers since they first started to appear in the late 19th century.  Almost every piece I've read on the subject used the words cookies, crackers, and biscuits interchangeably though.  All of them would also describe the cookies as "sweetened".  So I'm not sure what has changed, did these crackers used to be less sweet, or did people once have a taste for sweet crackers in savory soups?


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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You're so right and so funny. At my age 51, i agree. I too have been trying to figure it out for years. Terminology has changed , as I'm sure ingredients. I would assume back in the day crackers were mere saltine like, but sting a catchy tune...