Oyster crackers is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store them, what to substitute, and 21 recipes to get you started.

What are oyster crackers?

Oyster crackers are the tiny, puffy soup crackers you find in a little cellophane bag beside a bowl of chowder. They are small and usually hexagonal, dry and only lightly salted, with a bland, biscuit-like flavor that exists to soak up broth rather than stand on its own.

Despite the name, there are no oysters in them. The name comes from their old partner, oyster stew, where they once floated.

Some say the shape was meant to resemble a little oyster.

Think of them as miniature soda crackers built for floating. They are made from wheat flour with a little fat and leavening, baked hard so they stay crisp in hot liquid longer than a flat cracker would.

How to Use Oyster Crackers

Their first job is soup. Scatter a handful over clam chowder or tomato soup and they soften slowly, thickening the broth as they go. Boston Clam Chowder and New England Clam Chowder with Salt Pork are the classic bowls they were made for.

In the Midwest they are standard on Cincinnati chili. A pile of oyster crackers under the chili and cheese is part of the dish, showing up in Bob's Cincinnati Chili and Four Way Cincinnati Chili alike.

Their second life is as a seasoned snack. Toss them with oil and a packet of ranch or dill seasoning, then bake them low into a party mix people cannot stop reaching for.

Ranch Oyster Crackers and Oyster Cracker Snack Mix both run on this trick.

Crushed, they also work as a binder or breading. Cracker Crumb Mixture grinds them into crumbs for coating and stuffing, where they behave like a milder, saltier breadcrumb.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Oyster crackers go with anything brothy or creamy: chowders, bisques, chili, and bean soups. As a snack base they take well to ranch, dill, garlic, and a hit of cayenne, since their blandness is a blank canvas.

The most common mistake is adding them to soup too early. Drop them in at the pot and they dissolve into mush. Add them at the table, by the handful, so each spoonful still has crunch.

The seasoned-snack version has its own trap: too much oil. Use just enough to make the seasoning stick, about ¼ cup (60 ml) per 9-ounce (255 g) bag, then bake low at 250°F (120°C) so they crisp instead of turning greasy.

Substitutes vs Saltines

The closest swap is a saltine, broken into pieces. Saltines are flatter and saltier, so they soften faster in soup, but they cover the same ground.

Other small crackers fill in too. Mini Ritz, Goldfish, or broken water crackers all float on soup or take seasoning for a snack mix, each shifting the flavor a little. For the soup-thickening job specifically, a few crushed saltines or even stale bread cubes do the same work.

What you cannot easily fake is the sturdiness. Oyster crackers hold their crunch in hot broth longer than almost any flat cracker.

That stamina is exactly why they earned their spot.

Buying and Storing Oyster Crackers

You will find them in the cracker or soup aisle, sold in bags or boxes, with OTC and Westminster among the familiar brands. They are cheap and shelf-stable, so a box keeps for months in the pantry.

Once the bag is open, the enemy is humidity. Seal them in an airtight container or a zip-top bag, since they go soft in open air within a day or two.

If they do lose their snap, a few minutes in a 300°F (150°C) oven crisps them right back up. Let them cool fully before sealing them away again, or trapped steam will soften them a second time.

Quick facts

In Chinese

牡蛎饼干

British (UK) term

Oyster crackers

en français

craquelins d'huîtres

en español

galletas de ostras

Recipes using oyster crackers

There are 21 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 21 recipes