Cracker Jack-3 Articles in One!

Taken from the Seattle Times 3.30.05 D1 & D3

By Judith Blake Seattle Times staff reporter
Baseball is a game of tradition, and one of its traditions is nearly a century old: the singing of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," with its nostalgic nod to a crunchy treat that's even older, Cracker Jack.
When the Seattle Mariners take to Safeco Field on Monday for their home opener of 2005, the crowd will once again warble the old tune during the seventh-inning stretch.
And from the vendors and the concession stands — where sushi and spring rolls now count themselves among the fashionable fare — many fans will snatch up bags or boxes of the caramel-coated popcorn-and-peanut snack known as Cracker Jack, as they've done at baseball games since somewhere around 1900.
Kids and grown-ups alike will tear open the familiar package with the picture of Sailor Jack and his dog Bingo and munch on the sweet, popped corn while they search for the tiny "prize" that's always inside.
Taste hasn't changed
Some will no doubt complain that the prizes aren't what they used to be nor the peanuts as plentiful (see related story ), yet they'll welcome this taste of the tried and true.
In a world of accelerating change, where "new" quickly turns to "old," Cracker Jack's primary feature, its coated popcorn, has stayed essentially the same for more than 100 years.
"The formulation has not changed since 1893," says Jared Dougherty, spokesman for Frito-Lay, the huge snack company that acquired Cracker Jack from Borden Inc. in 1997.
CJ lore says 1893 was the year R.W. Rueckheim introduced the snack at the Columbian Exposition, Chicago's first world's fair, according to the CJ official Web site. In 1896, Rueckheim's brother Louis discovered a way to keep the molasses-covered pieces from sticking together, though the basic formula remained unchanged.
Cracker Jack was not alone in joining the budding world of processed foods during those turn-of-the-century years. Like the popcorn treat, a number of them remain with us today, among them Kellogg's Corn Flakes, the Hershey chocolate bar and canned tuna.
Irresistible to many
The durable Cracker Jack formula, with its mild hint of molasses, still pleases the taste buds of Alex Jaramillo Jr., a member of the Cracker Jack Collectors Association — yes, there is such a thing — who has amassed thousands of CJ prizes from throughout the product's history. Though the Fontana, Calif., man's interest lies chiefly in the toys, he says he also loves the taste.
"I still eat it today. My refrigerator is full of Cracker Jack," he said, adding the fridge keeps the snack fresher.
Closer to home, 78-year-old Jo Richardson of Yakima, a CJ prize collector for 20 years, admits that while she still enthusiastically collects the toys, she's no longer that wild about eating the snack, which she mostly gives away after opening a box or bag to find the prize.
It's the total package — the taste, the prize, the old-fashioned feel — that holds appeal for those who cannot resist Cracker Jack at a ballgame.
Recent obstacles
Yet even if Cracker Jack is as homey and familiar as the game with which it has long been linked, its life on the American scene has not been completely free of rift or the product immune to the waves of change that constantly wash over the world of food.
Take last summer. That's when the folks who run the concessions at New York's Yankee Stadium decided to replace Cracker Jack with another sweetened popcorn snack, Crunch 'n Munch.
You'd have thought they were replacing wooden baseball bats with plastic swizzle sticks. An uproar ensued. Losing Cracker Jack was more than fans could tolerate. Soon, Cracker Jack was back in Yankee Stadium.
There's no sign of a similar crisis occurring at Safeco, where Cracker Jack appears to be firmly ensconced. Indeed, Cracker Jack is sold at every major-league ballpark in the U.S. and at many minor-league ones.
But the brief controversy at Yankee Stadium points to the stiff competition Cracker Jack faces in various venues, including supermarkets, from Crunch 'n Munch, Fiddle Faddle and other syrup-coated popcorn-and-peanut snacks.
And as part of the often attacked snack-food industry, Cracker Jack and the others must contend with critics' assertion that they're contributing to the national obesity epidemic and other health problems.
In the mid-1990s, when low-fat or no-fat products flooded supermarket shelves, Cracker Jack came out with a fat-free auxiliary version (minus the peanuts), though that product line was later discontinued. Today's product, the original recipe, contains 2 grams of fat (none saturated), 120 calories and 15 grams of sugar per single serving of about 1 ¼ ounce.
Of possibly more interest to dedicated CJ fans is the package their beloved snack comes in. Though a modern version of the traditional box is still available, Cracker Jack now also comes in a foil bag, which Frito-Lay's Dougherty says helps keep the product fresher.
There's always something nibbling away at tradition.

By Judith Blake Seattle Times staff reporter
The peanuts and prizes in a package of Cracker Jack get fans nearly as riled up as an umpire's "disputed" call in a tight Mariner game. Here are the weighty issues:
The peanuts Some Cracker Jack aficionados swear there are fewer peanuts in a CJ box or bag than there used to be. Just how many are there?
Taking the question seriously, we decided to count 'em. We bought three boxes of Cracker Jack from three different supermarkets, laid out the popcorn and peanuts from each box separately on the counter of the Seattle Times Food Department's test kitchen and started counting. It didn't take long.
One box had 5 peanuts, another 5-½ and the third box 7 — an average of 5.83 peanuts per box.
"That's about right," said Jared Dougherty, a spokesman for Frito-Lay, Cracker Jack's manufacturer.
He said the company maintains a certain average ratio of peanuts to popcorn, by weight. He would not reveal that ratio but said the number we counted would be in the approved weight range.
"I would say they've come down a little bit (in peanut numbers)" since Borden owned Cracker Jack, prior to 1997, said Alex Jaramillo Jr., a dedicated CJ fan, commercial collector of CJ prizes and author of a book on the history of those prizes. The Fontana, Calif., man addedthat the actual average number is "hard to pin down."
When Borden owned Cracker Jack, the company promised 12 to 15 peanuts per box, said Jaramillo, who once served as Borden's volunteer Cracker Jack historian.
Before about 1918, the CJ manufacturer of that era promised about 40 peanuts per box, though the actual number was probably more like 25 to 30, Jaramillo said. Though the boxes were larger then, containing nearly twice as much product as current boxes, the peanut/popcorn ratio was higher than now.

You Know Jack?
• "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," the song that helped popularize Cracker Jack by tying it to baseball, was written in 1908 by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer, neither of whom had ever actually attended a baseball game, according to CJ legend. Each reportedly did so many years later.
• It's always "Cracker Jack," never "Cracker Jacks," even in the plural, say CJ purists. Proper form: "Please give me a handful of Cracker Jack." Improper: "Please give me a handful of Cracker Jacks."
• Cracker Jack sold for a nickel a box in its early days, about a century ago. Today's supermarket price: about $1.50 for a three-box pack, or 50 cents each, though you'll pay more at a ballgame.
• If you're convinced there are fewer peanuts in a Cracker Jack box than there used to be, you're far from the first to think so. Even before 1920, CJ's then-manufacturer got complaints about too few peanuts, according to Alex Jaramillo Jr., author of a history of Cracker Jack prizes.
• A complete set of 1915 baseball cards, offered individually as prizes that year in Cracker Jack boxes, has sold for $800,000 for all 176 cards.
• Offering prizes in series was a key to Cracker Jack's sales success almost from the beginning, says Jaramillo. Series encouraged people to buy more boxes to collect a complete set of prizes. Some competitors offered prizes, but not in series.
• You can buy old Cracker Jack prizes on eBay.
• Despite the marriage of Cracker Jack and baseball in the minds of millions, it's hot dogs that top unit sales charts at Safeco Field, officials say. Hot dogs sold per game, on average: 7,500. Cracker Jack's average tally: 352 bags or boxes per game, or 28,500 per season.
• Cracker Jack gets its slight flavor of molasses from, yes, molasses. One of its sweetened-popcorn rivals, Crunch 'n Munch, has a slight buttery flavor and does contain butter.
• What's in Cracker Jack: sugar, corn syrup, popcorn, peanuts, molasses, salt, corn and/or soybean oil and soy lecithin.