Fig Newton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Fig Newton is a brand of fig bar (in Europe, a fig roll), a soft, cake-like pastry filled with fig jam. A trademarked product of Nabisco, Fig Newtons originated in the United States and have since spread across the world. Their unusual shape is a characteristic that has been adopted by many competitors, such as the generic fig bars sold by most supermarkets, and Newman's Own Fig Newmans (an organic variety).
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[edit] History
The Fig Newton was created in 1891 by Joshua Josephson of the Kennedy Biscuit Company, a Massachusetts-based bakery. The company named many of their products after surrounding communities. The Fig Newton was named after nearby Newton, Massachusetts. It was first called simply the Newton, but in 1898 the name was changed to Fig Newton.
The Kennedy Biscuit Company merged with other regional bakeries in 1898 to form the National Biscuit Company, which later became Nabisco. The cookie is now produced by Nabisco.
Roser invented the technique for encasing the fig jam in a dough wrapper. The machine that makes the cookie consists of a funnel within a funnel. The inner funnel contains the filling, and the outer funnel contains the dough. The machine extrudes the filled cookie, which is then baked, cut into smaller pieces, and packaged. Some UK manufacturers including Jacobs and Crawfords slice the extruded shape before baking giving distinctive rounded ends to the fig rolls.
Recently, Nabisco moved the manufacture of the cookie to Monterrey, Mexico.
[edit] Varieties
Nabisco makes several varieties of the Newton, including Strawberry, Cherries 'n' Cheesecake, Caramel Apple, Raspberry, and Apple Newtons (no relation to Apple Computer's Apple Newton), in addition to the original Fig. The original Fig Newton also comes in a low fat variety and a 100% whole grain variety. Fig Newton Minis were also recently introduced. The cookie is the company's number-three seller at more than a billion a year.
[edit] Advertising and Popular Culture
In the 1970s, Nabisco ran a tremendously popular advertising campaign for the Fig Newton. The commercials featured Jonathan Winters dressed like a fig.
At the conclusion of the song, he struck the "fig newton pose", leaning forward and balancing on his left foot, with arms spread and right leg raised behind him.
Jacobs Biscuits is its main manufacturer in Europe, advertising with the slogan "How do they get the figs into the fig rolls?".
American advertisements have most frequently featured a narrator with a British accent and other European themes. In the 1980s, Nabisco again produced a popular advertising slogan:
- A cookie is just a cookie, but a Newton is fruit and cake.
In the 2006, the push was centered on the claim that a Fig Newton contained more fruit than a Nutri-Grain bar.
[edit] Trivia
- In the movie Marx Brothers movie Animal Crackers, when Harpo's character, The Professor, first appears, Groucho's Captain Spaulding quips "The gates swung open and a Fig Newton entered."
- In The Simpsons episode "Mother Simpson", Homer Simpson's childhood bed time song was the Fig Newton jingle from the '70s. Upon his mother saying the line "Here's the tricky part", Homer immediately fell to sleep.
- In 2006's Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Ricky puts a giant Fig Newtons sticker on the windshield of his race car. He later says, "This sticker is dangerous and inconvenient, but I do love Fig Newtons."
- Kansas City Chiefs head coach Herman Edwards has a nostalgic affection for Fig Newtons, and usually has "a package close by," but never eats them. [1]
- In his book the Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, the author Bill Bryson describes the Fig Newtons as the worst cookie ever baked.
- In M*A*S*H Season 4, Episode 17 "Der Tag", BJ brings Fig Newtons to share with Hawkeye while driving in a jeep to retrieve Frank Burns from a Battalion Aid Station.
- In M*A*S*H Season 5, Episode 19 "Hepatitis", Col Sherman Potter shares some Fig Newtons with Hawkeye, "Fig Newtons and Scotch...They're great if you dunk 'em"
- In an episode of Family Guy Stewie is seen eating a Fig Newton and proclaiming that there was an "orgy" inside his mouth.
- In Scrubs, Bob Kelso uses Fig Newtons to secretly medicate his wife.
- Comedian Gary Gulman included a bit about Fig Newtons on his CD "Conversations with Inanimate Objects" [2]
- In the television show Magnum PI, one of Thomas Magnum's favorite snacks is Fig Newtons with a glass of milk.
