The Evolution of the S'more (Plus Several Creative Campfire Twists)

Camp Recipe Series 

National S’mores Day is August 10, and while it was probably dreamed up by some corporate manufacturer hoping to move extra chocolate bars, I am going to side with Big Chocolate on this one. As fabricated holidays go, this one at least has the decency to involve open flame and gooey marshmallows. If someone wants to give us another excuse to build a small fire, dig out the roasting forks, and eat more s’mores, I see no need to summon a congressional inquiry.

Before there were s’mores, there were recipes

Recipes have not always been the tidy little instruction sets we know today. For centuries, they often read more like vague memos passed between people who already knew what they were doing: take some of this, heat it somehow, stop when it looks right. Helpful, provided you were already the sort of person who could turn a goat, three onions, and social confidence into dinner.

The original campfire version

That evolution matters because the s’more is almost comically simple, but it still depends on a shared formula: cracker, chocolate, marshmallow, heat, and timing. The first known s’more recipe appeared in a 1927 Girl Scouts book under the title “Some More.” It did not settle into the contracted name “s’more” until around 1971, which feels about right. Even snacks need a few decades to discover branding.

"Some More"

"Ingredients:

• 8 sticks
• 16 graham crackers
• 8 bars plain chocolate
• 16 marshmallows

Directions:

Toast two marshmallows over the coals to a crisp gooey state and then put them inside a graham cracker and chocolate bar sandwich. The heat of the marshmallow between the halves of chocolate bar will melt the chocolate a bit. Though it tastes like "some more" one is really enough."1 

The fun of a s’more is that the original recipe is sturdy enough to survive tinkering. Once you understand the basic architecture, every ingredient becomes a possible swap: different cookies, different chocolate, fruit, nut butter, jam, or whatever else is already packed in the camp bin. When you are feeling adventurous, try these flourishes from Cindy Dyson, printed in an issue of Backpacker. Some are practical. Some are ambitious. A few suggest that the line between dessert and outdoor engineering is thinner than we like to admit.

• "Extra layer: This is the traditional s'more with a little something extra: peanut butter, sliced bananas, cherries, dried pineapple, raspberry preserves, dried strawberries.
• Gourmet: Nix the Hershey bar and go with Lindt, Ghirardelli, or other gourmet chocolate.
• Healthy s'more: Substitute healthful cookies for the crackers. slather marshmallow spread on them, sprinkle with carob chips, and set near the fire to melt.
• Crackerless s'mores: Push a Rolo or other bite-size piece of chocolate into a marshmallow, pierce both with a stick and roast.
• PB& J: Spread peanut butter on two graham crackers (rather than using chocolate). then sandwich sliced grapes and a roasted marshmallow between the crackers."2

Here are a few more ways to bend the classic s’more without breaking it, drawn from Camp Out! Try them on your next campout and see if you can impress your friends, your children, or at minimum the raccoon monitoring your campsite from a suspicious distance.

• “Sliced bananas and a roasted marshmallow between coconut cookies
• Peanut butter, jelly, and a roasted marshmallow between graham crackers
• Apple slices, peanut butter, chocolate, and a roasted marshmallow between graham crackers
• Strawberry slices and a roasted marshmallow between shortbread
• Mint-flavored chocolate and a roasted marshmallow between graham crackers
• Raspberry jam, dark chocolate, and a roasted marshmallow between shortbread
• Pineapple slices and a roasted marshmallow between coconut cookies
• A peanut butter cup and a roasted marshmallow between graham crackers”3

What this gives us at the campfire

So the s’more works as both a recipe and a prompt. The 1927 version gives us the baseline, the later book and magazine variations show how flexible the idea became, and the campfire supplies the only real rule: melt something sweet between something crisp, then decide whether one is really enough. Historically speaking, the answer was no. Nutritionally speaking, the answer is also no, but with more paperwork.


by David F. Garner

Sources:

1. Girl Scouts of the United States of America, Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts (New York: Girl Scouts, Inc., 1927), 71.

2. Cindy Dyson, Backpacker, August 1999, 120.

3. Lynn Brunelle, Camp Out!: The Ultimate Kids' Guide (New York: Workman Publishing, 2007), 89.