Okay, this blog post isn't as strange and/or revolting as most of them. But it's still a little off-the-beaten-path. Probably most of the people reading this have had a Goldfish cracker at least once in their life. But how many of you have had ones that are flavored with the butterbeer mentioned in the Harry Potter universe, or are strawberry shortcake Grahams? (Hopefully not as many.) Also, since they're a registered trademark and all, I'll be capitalizing "Goldfish" for the rest of this article.
The Goldfish cracker story is a fairly long one, and will take us to two continents, even. (And happily it was available on the official company website.) Back in 1897 a woman named Margaret Fogarty was born in New York City. The oldest of five children, she was academically inclined, serving as valedictorian for her high school class. After graduating, she worked for nine years, including an eventful stint at an investment company. Sparks flew between Margaret and a broker named Henry Rudkin, and the two got married and raised three children. Eventually they moved to a farm in Fairfield, Connecticut. The property was known as Pepperidge Farm, because of an old and distinctive pepperidge tree which grew on it. Alas, one of the Rudkin children, Mark, was afflicted with bad allergies and asthma. Doctors thought that heavily processed foods might be making his conditions worse. So, Margaret decided to start baking bread at home for Mark that was made from more natural, less processed ingredients. The initial attempt went poorly, being hard as a rock. However, Margaret kept at it, and her bread improved. Enough so that she decided to go into business selling it. The man who owned the local grocery, Mercurio's Market, was skeptical when she pitched him her idea, especially because she wanted to charge 25 cents per loaf, at a time when most loaves went for only 10 cents. But then he tried some, and agreed. Sales started to skyrocket, helped by a positive article about the Pepperidge Farm bread in the national magazine Reader's Digest. Then a snag hit. During World War II rationing was instituted, and Margaret refused to sell bread made with inferior substitutes. Her production went way down. Fortunately, once the War was over she resumed her higher production, and her company prospered once again. In the 1950's Margaret traveled to Belgium, and was impressed with some cookies that she had there. She made a deal with the Belgian manufacturer, and started selling these cookies back in the U.S.A. in 1955. This scenario unfolded once again in the early 1960's--Margaret was dazzled by some crackers that were in the shape of goldfish while traveling in Switzerland. Another deal later, starting in 1962 these Goldfish crackers were being sold in America. (If you're curious, the Swiss baker who invented the crackers was named Oscar J. Kambly, and he created them in either 1954 or 1958 (sources differ on the "birth" date).) (Additionally, I don't know the details about the exact baker or company that came up with the cookies that Margaret bought--it wasn't reported in the histories I read.) In either 1961 or 1963 (again, sources differ on the exact date) Margaret sold Pepperidge Farms to the Campbell soup company. A sojourn into another industry was also fruitful for Margaret, as her 1963 cookbook (the Margaret Rudkin Pepperidge Farm Cookbook) was reportedly the first cookbook to make the New York Times best seller list. (I looked up this title on Amazon, and I found it easily. It has very high ratings, and several copies are available for under $10.) Finally, Margaret was known for being an early feminist, even if this term was probably not used much in her lifetime. Aside from creating and running her own company, she also apparently hired a lot of women (both married and unmarried) as employees at her business, and helped them out by offering flexible hours. Back to Goldfish crackers, reportedly they're sold in almost every country in the world, albeit sometimes through subsidiary companies, and/or under different names. The listed exceptions were North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Armenia.
Goldfish crackers, strawberry shortcake Grahams: They were the usual Goldfish size and color, being yellow, and of course, shaped like little goldfish. They had the usual Goldfish texture, too, dry and crunchy. There was a noticeable sweet strawberry flavor. Pretty good. Not great, but solid. It was a little strange for me to eat a Goldfish crackers that wasn't salty and cheese-flavored. A dessert Goldfish, I guess you could say.
Goldfish crackers, Harry Potter butterbeer flavor Grahams: These were also the usual Goldfish size and shape. The color was a brownish yellow. Same dry and crunchy texture. The taste was quite sweet. From the name I expected these to be buttery, but they really weren't. Later I saw that "butterscotch flavored" was on the label in smaller letters. Which makes more sense--that sugary sweet flavor was more what I detected. And that's good--I'm not a fan of strong buttery flavors in general, such as on popcorn. Anyway, overall these were pretty tasty. I liked them a bit better than the strawberry kind, which surprised me a little. So I would also recommend both of these to people who want a change of pace, a different type of taste in their Goldfish crackers. They're not dazzling, but they're decent, and just different enough to be interesting.
Any American over the age of about 35 probably instantly thought about the television commercials when they heard the name "Pepperidge Farm." They were fairly ubiquitous when I was growing up, with the old man (character name "Titus Moody") talking about the cookies, the good old days, and ending with "Pepperidge Farm remembers." I must admit I found the ads to be a bit annoying. But hard to forget. The fact that I still recall them decades later is surely a testament to the marketing executives who created the commercials. So good for them, even if I found the ads fairly irritating.
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