It’s totally American.
Head back to the 1920s when Girl Scouts spent time outdoors, often huddled around a cozy campfire. They invented a gooey treat made with only three ingredients – graham crackers, toasted marshmallows, and a slab of chocolate.
The story claims that the scouts always wanted “some more” of the delicious treat. Loretta Scott Crew, troop leader, published the recipe below in the 1927 edition of Tramping and Trailing With the Girl Scouts.
16 graham crackers
8 bars plain chocolate (any of the good plain brands broken in two)
16 marshmallows
Toast two marshmallows over the coals to a crisp gooey state and then put them inside a graham cracker and chocolate bar sandwich. The heat of the marshmallow between the halves of chocolate bar will melt the chocolate a bit. Though it tastes like “some more” one is really enough.
I’m not sure that one is really enough.
Years later in the 1970s, the yummy treat was shortened to s’mores. Today, whether it’s made on a campfire, over a barbecue, in the kitchen, or mixed into ice cream, we can always eat some more.
The history behind the ingredients is almost as sweet as the s’mores.
In 1837, health conscious, puritanical Presbyterian minister, Sylvester Graham, invented a new cracker. He was born in 1794 in Connecticut into a family of seventeen children. Surviving a rough childhood (his father was 72 years old when Sylvester was born), he suffered from poor health.
Graham eventually became an itinerant preacher, passionate about good health and diet.
Wikipedia refers to Graham as a “dietary reformer” often called “The Father of Vegetarianism.” He held a position in The Philadelphia Temperance Society and preached that meat and alcohol corrupted the body and soul. Graham believed that people should live on plant-based foods like Adam and Eve in The Garden of Eden.
Mmmmm – have you heard that recently?
In 1837, the Reverend invented a cracker made from coarsely ground, unsifted wheat flour and shortening. He believed his cracker would cure cravings for lovemaking.
He named it after himself: the graham cracker.
Sylvester Graham, Compliments of Wikimedia Commons
The good Reverend also developed graham flour and bread. He became relatively popular and subsequently co-founded The American Physiological Society. His ideas were labeled Grahamism.
Today, graham crackers and crumbs are used for everything from pie crusts, cheesecakes, cookies, and of course, s’mores.
I wonder what Graham would think about adding marshmallows.
Check out marshmallows. Originally made by the Greeks from the marsh-mallow sap of the plant, today they’re mostly sugar, corn syrup, water, gelatin, and food coloring. Hardly a health food. For a more detailed history, read my blog, From Kings to Kids: The Sticky Story of Marsh-Mallows.
Perhaps the good Reverend would not approve of the third ingredient, chocolate, even though it’s usually vegetarian. Chocolate has been around for thousands of years. It’s one of the most popular sweets in the world, commanding a global market worth $138 billion. For more details, check out my blog, Do You Have Chocolate on The Brain?
The Girl Scouts knew what they were doing when they put everything together.
If you don’t have a campfire available, you can always choose s’more-flavored foods from cookies and cereals to candy bars and donuts. There’s National S’more Day each year or look at images of the largest s’more ever made in 2019 by Planetary Manners in Vermont. The final treat weighed almost 343 pounds.
According to a survey conducted by National S’mores Day, 75% of parents say they eat s’mores with their kids during the summer. They even have a recipe for making s’mores healthier by using “dark chocolate, whole wheat graham crackers, and sugar-free marshmallows.”
There are also international versions, like Israeli s’mores made with halvah, Scottish made with shortbread, Asian style made with black sesame crackers, and South Korean Choco Pies. How about some tasty touches with Girl Scout mint cookies or Ritz Crackers and peanut butter?
Whether healthy, original, or international, made in a campfire or eaten from a box, have some more today!
Yummm! Only one of the best treats ever invented! Truly a treat where the whole is more than the sum of its parts. And what simple parts they are, three main ingredients that I never gave much thought to until reading your wonderful history of marshmallow, chocolate, and the ubiquitous graham cracker. Some More, please!