It was inwented by the Russians!
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Baked by elves from the power company.
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Mmmmmm… salt…
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Thanks for answering this! Like you, I was thinking of the Presto Hot Dogger, and wondering how it worked with biscuits.
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Half Jacobs Cracker, Half Shreddie, All Salt.
Although, even the original flavor is unusually (for crackers) low in salt.
The nice saltiness, I’ve always figured, is because of how I imagine it is made.
Instead of salt being added to the dough before shaping, the triscuit is baked, then sprayed with brine before being baked again. This causes for all the salty to be on the outside of the fibers, being released immediately to your taste-buds before you even start chomping.
Eating a box of Triscuits with cheese doesn’t leave one feeling parched and pickled like, for example, eating a meal at McDs would.
The explanation given in the twittering, for the name of the shredded wheat cracker, doesn’t at all ring true. Just doesn’t.
While it is fun to think that this North American cracker
-takes deep breath-
could be named in part for the Phoenician word elēkrŏn, shining light, for the Baltic Sea amber they traded throughout the Mediterranean and up the Nile, via Classical Greek, into New Latin through Francis Bacon who first used the word “electric” in writing to describe the electromagnetic properties of materials other than Baltic Sea amber, about which they where known since antiquity, and this way into 17th century English as electricity,
-quick breath-
it is probably wrong.
Like @Shuck said:
“Biscuit” comes from the Latin for “twice baked” (bread). " Biscuits" are literally the English version of the Italian “biscotti.” (panis) bis coctus [Latin] => biscoctum [Mediaeval Latin] => biscotto [Old Italian] => bescuit [Old French] => biscuit [English]
The Latin word for wheat is triticum. The many species of wheat together make up the genus Triticum.
Triticum biscuits.
These wheat crackers are named for what they are. Wheat, twice baked.
This, to me, rings true, but y’all can of course all have your own half-baked opinions.
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But that wouldn’t have distinguished them from any variety of crackers on the market then. Most if not all of them would have been wheat, and a redundant name as a brand identity wouldn’t make much sense.
I do find the “(elec)tri(city) (bi)scuit” argument compelling because names of products tended to be about features that were heavily emphasized in advertising, which this was, and it follows the absurd naming conventions of late-19th and early 20th century US products. Also, Nabisco eventually confirmed it.
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As a historian, I’m skeptical of both the original thread’s conclusions AND the brand’s assertions about the origins after acknowledging that they don’t have any records pertaining to the name:
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I want to stress that A, there is still the possibility that the TRI is from elecTRIcity–we just don’t know for sure; and B, the crackers themselves were still distinguished by being the first to be baked by electricity, so they remain the electric biscuits regardless of the thinking behind the name.
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Oh, I know… I agree with your assessment on the sources and wanting to see them, etc… you want good support for your historical arguments, etc, etc… Fully on board as a fellow historian… just… it was kind of fun… electricity biscuits… I think we could all stand a little levity and fun right now, yeah?
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That’s entirely true! Good call!
Mmmmmm Bromangelon shredded wheat… [homer simpson hungry sounds here]
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Having just reviewed the making of shredded wheat on youtube, (noting the “secrecy” behind the last two baking processes) What if the name came from thrice baked, but was carefully denied to avoid divulging trade secrets? (explaining why they have no official record)
(as much as the crossword section of my brain likes the triticale connection)
edit - for the record, the wheat is cooked a bit to soften the grain, then rolled into the stringy layers, then baked and baked to make a biscuit
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In my food? 
No, definitely, no.
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