Chicken in a Biskit

It was questioned today while I was camping whether I had actually had a childhood. Supposedly, there was a staple food of my friend Katie's childhood that I never had the privilege to eat. "Chicken in a Biskit" is made by the same company that boxes Cheese Nips. It is a "baked snack cracker" that encompasses the taste of chicken.

This product reminds me of our experience in class last week when we investigated the taste behind chicken flavored ramen. What does chicken taste like? Similar to the ingredients of the ramen flavor package, both products contain actual cooked chicken. Number 12 of 13 ingredients in Chicken in a Biskit is dehydrated cooked chicken. There is more Sugar, Salt, MSG, and "Natural Flavor" in these chicken flavored crackers than chicken itself.

When I questioned what Katie thought was the best part about the snack was, she enjoyed that it was super salty, not the chicken flavor. She craves salt. When I brought up ramen, Katie commented that she isn't attracted to the meat flavor in the soup, but the salt factor. She prefers beef ramen over the chicken because it has a higher salt content on her palate. This attraction to salt is not surprising; salt may be the cheapest spice to stimulate taste buds.

Upon sampling a few of the crackers myself, they tasted like a buttery bouillon cube. It was similar to that of ramen, but more diluted. The visible salt flecks on the cracker were definitely detectable in my mouth, making me thirsty after I swallowed the snack.

This cracker certainly failed in encompassing chicken flavor. Shortly after eating this snack, I came across Pollan's experience of eating the Polyface chicken. He remarks that his "chicken smelled and tasted exactly like chicken.... it [was] a more chickeny chicken" (271). What is the capitalized idea of Chicken we hold in our heads but seldom taste anymore... I can assure you it undoubtedly was not contained in these chicken flavored crackers.