In 1792, Theodore Pearson of Newburyport, MA, made a cracker-like bread product from just flour and water that he called Pearson's Pilot Bread. An immediate success with sailors because of its long shelf life, it also became known as "hardtack" or a "sea biscuit". This was the first cracker bakery in North America and produced crackers for more than a century.

However, the real revolutionary moment in the life of the cracker came in 1801 when another Massachusetts baker, Josiah Bent, burned a batch of biscuits in his brick oven. The crackling noise that emanated from the singed biscuits inspired the name - crackers - and a bit of ingenuity, as Bent set out to convince the world of the product's snack food potential. By 1810, his Boston-area business was booming, and, in later years, Bent sold his enterprise to the National Biscuit Company, which now does business under the Nabisco name.

Today, the cookie and cracker industry in North America employs almost 40,000 people, with sales exceeding $12 billion. We've assembled a selection of delicious crackers which have a list of uses that is limited only by your imagination!