The Legendary American Chain That Still Makes Most Of Its Food From Scratch

While we love eating out at our favorite American chains, we've long made peace with the fact that many casual eateries get their meals straight from frozen packages off the Sysco truck. Coming across a big-name restaurant that still shows care for homestyle cooking is a rare experience indeed, which is why it's so novel that Cracker Barrel, the iconic highway rest stop and eatery known as much for its pegboard games and rocking chairs as its buttery cornbread, makes many of its dishes from scratch every day, in house. The Barrel made news last year when changes to its famous biscuits caused major backlash, but the chain has course-corrected right back to where folks like it: with a focus on down-home comfort food made by real people.

Cracker Barrel's website proudly boasts that employees mash real potatoes, roll biscuit dough, and dip homestyle fried chicken by hand. It's a claim backed — albeit, with no guarantee of authenticity — by a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) session with a self-professed Cracker Barrel employee of over 20 years. When asked how much food Cracker Barrel made in-house, the Redditor was quick to reassure fans that the news was good: "Actually, we make almost everything in house! We do get mixes (think like boxed cake mixes) but just about everything is prepared and cooked in our kitchen." 

Going by the social media user's reports, it seems that Cracker Barrel utilizes a clever mix of packaged ingredients and human labor to create "homemade" food that sets itself apart. When it came to fried chicken, for instance: "Idk if it's super secret. We hand bread the chicken and deep fry in a Henny Penny pressure cooker fryer. The breading mix we get is pre-made though. A blend of flour and spices."

Is the ageless appeal of Cracker Barrel a product of its convenience factor, with many restaurants located near the exits of major highways? Is it the pricing, which includes cheap meals on weekdays if you catch the best days to eat at Cracker Barrel? Maybe it's the menu, which includes rarely-seen soul food classics like beans-and-greens, meatloaf, chicken 'n dumplings, and all-day country ham breakfast platters. 

Despite the fact that Cracker Barrel is a chain, and not an upscale one at that, many customers number its food among their favorite restaurant entrees, alleging that the food tastes as good as a home-cooked meal. Perhaps this is because Cracker Barrel's fare is the next-best thing to a meal cooked by a loving family member in a home kitchen?

For our money, many of us choose Cracker Barrel when we want to indulge in a low-cost family meal, whether that's during a long road trip or on a Sunday morning after church. It certainly doesn't hurt that the restaurant gives the impression of having dished up grits, hash brown casserole, and baked apples just for you, even if the kitchen is as structured as any other chain's workspace. True, Cracker Barrel sometimes discontinues menu items, but it's usually quick to replace them with even more homestyle bangers like Mom or Dad used to dish up. Cracker Barrel sells a fantasy of homeyness, and we think that's ultimately the secret to its longevity.