4 Square Saltine Crackers

Does anyone still make the large 4 square saltine crackers? Too much crackers or bread will make them fat and constipated. 11 square meters is 118.4 square feet.

Remember they used to make saltines so that they were four square, perforated, and you had to break them apart? When did they make the switch to individual crackers in sleeves? They didn't used to call them sleeves when there were like 10 four-up saltines in a stack.That's what I wonder.fifi, we always had saltines with chili, but my family is a buncha yankees from upstate Pennsylvania, so I assumed that we were in the wrong.I just remembered something else about saltines: in the spring, when the chives first came up, my mom would cut up a bunch of chives and whip them with cream cheese, and we'd eat it on saltines. I still associate that taste with spring-it has to be fresh chives, though, not that horrible cream cheese with chives that they sell in the supermarket, where they're all these slimy dark olive green bits in the cheese. Remember they used to make saltines so that they were four square, perforated, and you had to break them apart? When did they make the switch to individual crackers in sleeves? They didn't used to call them sleeves when there were like 10 four-up saltines in a stack.That's what I wonder.fifi, we always had saltines with chili, but my family is a buncha yankees from upstate Pennsylvania, so I assumed that we were in the wrong.I just remembered something else about saltines: in the spring, when the chives first came up, my mom would cut up a bunch of chives and whip them with cream cheese, and we'd eat it on saltines.

I still associate that taste with spring-it has to be fresh chives, though, not that horrible cream cheese with chives that they sell in the supermarket, where they're all these slimy dark olive green bits in the cheese.ooo. You are right about the four squares. That is what they were when I was a kid. I don't remember when they switched to the sleeves. Maybe maggie can find out and put it in her article or whatever. I do think that, as a little kid, my manual dexterity was partially trained by trying to deftly separate those four squares.Nope, you were not in the wrong about the saltines with chili.

That is how it has always been in my family. But then, we (me?) were profoundly affected by the opening of the big Nabisco plant in Houston in 1949. Not to drag this thread off the more relevant discussion of Saltine recipes, but I seem to remember a juvenile urban legend (for lack of a better term) where it's supposed to be scientifically impossible - or some such nonsense - to eat a certain amount of Saltines in a prescribed timeframe without drinking anything. Apparently (I feel dumber and dumber as I type this), there's some magical required ratio of sodium content to saliva production and no one can crack it.My friends and I tried this in the college dining hall on a slow night once, with one guy trying to eat some ungodly amount of Saltines within a minute or something. Eventually, all that chewed-up cracker just wadded up in his mouth and hit a critical mass that he couldn't swallow in time to make the time limit. Friends of mine - at a different college, mind you, so this wasn't just a Northwestern thing - also tried this and my friend ended up spewing un-swallowable Saltines all over her bed.

I'm happy to say we've all graduated and are circulating in the grown-up world now. Before there were chips and hot sauce, there were saltines and hot sauce.And it isn't just a Houston thing.Tex-Mex restaurants all over the state once served saltines, pats of butter and hot sauce while you waited for your meal. Tostadas, or chips caught on much later, according to an oral history by Delia Moya Hobbs of Moya's Cafe in Refugio. (See page 165 of The Tex-Mex Cookbook.)There a few Tex-Mex restaurants that still serve saltines, butter and hot sauce instead of chips.El Patio on Guadalupe and 31st in Austin being the most famous example.I have to confirm what he is saying. I now remember going to Felix's in Houston with my grandfather.

It was saltines. Not tortilla chips.

We always had saltines with chili, too. My mom learned how to make chili from her mother-in-law, who, though a second-generation Midwesterner, spent her early married life in Arkansas, and, as a prominent Quaker, also had significant family ties to Pennsylvania. Thanks to Robb, fifi and mrbigjas, we finally have sufficient evidence to support the long-standing contention that my grandmother was the until-now mythical 'Ms Four-Square,' renowned and regaled by anthropologists for decades - the Texas-Pennsylvania saltines-with-chili infection vector. As a kid I ate saltines with slices of dill pickle.yes, I was a weird child.They were always served with my mom's homemade vegetable soup, Campbell's Cream of Tomato Soup and my dad used to like eating saltines topped with sardines mixed with chopped onion and cider vinegar.They were also used as faux bread crumbs.

I remember many a tuna casserole with finely crumbled saltines topping the casserole, drizzled with melted oleo (never butter) and then baked until golden brown. It was a very '50's' way of cooking though it didn't help make the tuna casserole taste any better.

Saltines, oh yeah. Used to eat them with peanut butter until, a girlfriend started me on butter.Room temperature sweet butter slathered on a saltine. You start wilth one and its real difficult to stop the process.Sometimes it takes a call to the police or a parent or a friend, you get too caught up in the butter, saltine, into the mouth and start over again.But now, a new use for the saltine. An Al Roker segment on the Food channel showed a cook putting together crab cakes with saltines.Simply it was lump crab meat, mayo, and old bay with a bunch of crushed saltines.I tried the recipe twice, just eyeballing the amount of ingredients to quantity of crab meat. Simple yet outstanding result for crab cakes.

My mom always gave us saltines and 7-up when we were sick. To this day, it's what I eat when nauseous.

We always got the ones that said 'Premium' on the side of the tin, I think that's the name of the brand.Fat-free saltines are hideous. So are salt-free.My dad always used a humongous handful of crushed saltines in his soup (usually we had Campbell's tomato, or homemade chili). I always thought that it was a very sophisticated, grown-up thing to do, and only kids ate their soup plain. Dad would be mad if we were out of saltines, if my mom was serving soup.I also remember the four-pane version. It must have been in the '70s because I was born in late '73.When I found out our neighbor kids ate butter on saltines as snacks, I thought it was very exotic. My mom used icky 'oleo' so whenever my friend Rhoda would share her buttered saltines, I was very happy. In first grade, when we made butter by taking turns shaking cream in a jar, everyone got a little taste of the fresh butter on a saltine.

Saltines are nearly a food group for me. But I eat them weird.

I do have the PB&J, and the hunk o cheese on a cracker, but I freak my wife out a bit when I do the other stuff.Like thousand island dressing. Squirted right onto the cracker. Or tuna salad made right in the can (drain the tuna, add the fixin's, and mix it all up in the can - No dishes to wash!)OK, the last three were from my starvation just starting out days. But I still love'em. Admittedly, I don't HAVE to eat them anymore, but it is something I do develop cravings for.

Call me crazy. More notes from Saltine Nation-Heather, I hope it works for you. Be sure to brine for a couple of hours, I think the brined-in juicifulness is key.Are Premium saltines Nabisco?

Never have heard 'em called Nabisco before reading this discussion.My Dad was from the center of the Oklahoma panhandle, and saltines & chili were an immutable combination. He preferred Krispy brand, which came in stacks of big old 6-cracker sheafs, I think. It wasn't until I was buying my own saltines that I was able to indulge in Premiums and their perfection in squarity regularly, although they certainly were the standard among families other than mine. Most people don't even consider Krispys to be a saltine.Also I forgot perhaps the fave adult way to eat saltines In Today's World, which is as a raft for a canned smoked oyster to accompany a stiff 100% alcohol drinky like a Negroni. A good way to generate pork-chop-intended leftovers.

Yeah, those are all the new round crackers. There's no choice because all of the square Premiums are gone, totally replaced by the round ones.

Also notice how much shelf space is devoted to the new item. Nabisco is really pushing this one hard. That bugs me. Almost as much as calling them 'original' Premium Saltines.

Sorry, Nabisco, but these crackers were originally square. You're not going to get people to forget square saltines by just calling these new ones 'original' and banishing the real saltines. Said.The good-old square Premium Saltines were back on my grocery store shelves on Sunday when I went shopping - hallelujah! Fearing a second disappearance, I bought two boxes this time. Like many shoppers, I voted with my dollars - I went without buying any for 3 trips to the market.

The cheese is square, the cracker should be square - 'nuff said.Nabisco recently tested boxes with 4 or 6 half-sleeves of square crackers instead of 4 big sleeves, since it keeps more crackers fresher. I LOVED those, since I only eat a recommended serving of crackers at a pass.

Those aren't back yet, but I hold out hope. Said.I have seen the square ones back in CT.but NOT the 'Hint of Salt' variety that is so FABULOUS! What's up with that?

We can buy 'Hint of Salt' in Wheat Thins ( too small for cheese, but square at least) in Ritz Crackers, and even in Triscuits ( also square, but just not the same). Don't tell me there isn't a market for them, I bought 5 boxes when I heard about the switch to 'round' and am down to having just two left. Waaah.:( We baby boomers grew up with 'Saltines' and 1/2 pint of milk as snacks in Kindergarten ( 1953 and onwards) and 'we boomers' have tremendous buying power, as well as some new sensible eating habits. Esko software tutorial. It seems from the mail that it isn't just we 'oldies' that are incensed though.

Thank you to all loyal New England 'square ' fans, I haven't bought a round one yet and never will! I'll switch brands and just eat fewer of them.

Let's keep the pressure on!