The graham cracker begins not in a factory, but in the mind of a man named Sylvester Graham. It’s 1829, and he is watching America eat itself sick. He sees the white flour, stripped of its soul—the bran and germ discarded like refuse—baked into soft, airy bread that melts on the tongue and, he believes, melts the morals right along with it.

Now that we've covered the ingredients, let's take a look at the composition of graham crackers. A typical graham cracker is made up of:

The original graham cracker was invented by Reverend Sylvester Graham in the 1820s as a health food. He believed that a diet based on whole grains, fruits, and vegetables could cure many of the ailments of the time. His crackers were made with a coarser type of flour and were designed to be a more nutritious alternative to traditional baked goods. Today, graham crackers are enjoyed by people all over the world and are a popular ingredient in many desserts.

To get that specific "snap" without being too hard, the recipe requires specific structural ingredients:

You eat one now, perhaps without thinking. You break it along its perforated lines—three rectangles, like a triptych for a secular communion. It crumbles slightly. You taste the cinnamon first, then the sugar, then the faint, dusty echo of wheat. It is sweet, yes, but not cloying. It is the sweetness of a compromise. A treaty between Sylvester Graham’s ghost and the human tongue, which has always wanted what it wants.