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Bath Oliver is a dry white biscuit invented in the mid-18th century by physician William Oliver in Bath, England. Originally for health purposes, it is now enjoyed as a snack and often eaten with cheese and wine. The recipe is a secret, but it is known to contain flour, yeast, water, milk, and butter.
Bath Oliver is a pale, thin, dry white biscuit or cracker that was invented in England in the mid-18th century. It is named after the person who invented it and the city where he lived. Originating for health care purposes, Bath Oliver is now enjoyed as a snack, often eaten with cheese and red wine.
Born in 1695, William Oliver, who invented Bath Oliver, was a physician who settled in Bath, a town in the county of Somerset, in southwest England, in 1728. He studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge and Leiden University, the Holland’s oldest higher education institution, Oliver had previously practiced medicine in Plymouth, Devon, where he introduced inoculation for smallpox. He was in Bath, located east of Plymouth, however, where he was to remain for the rest of his life.
Within a decade, Oliver had risen to the top physician in town. This was due to the foundation of a hospital now known as the Royal Mineral Water Hospital, or ‘The Min’. A medical establishment specializing in rheumatism, it had been founded in 1738 out of the belief that the mineral waters of Bath’s spas contained healing benefits. Oliver invented a food product that could supplement these supposedly natural powers.
Thus was born the bath sandwich, which was the forerunner of the Bath Oliver. It was an incredibly rich sandwich made of ground, granulated sugar, milk, water, dry yeast, eggs, butter, and sultanas, which are seedless white grapes. Even though the patients loved the delicious snack, Oliver soon found that they were gaining weight by eating them. He resorted to introducing Bath Oliver as a less fattening alternative.
Suffering from gout for the last few years, Oliver wanted Bath Oliver to outlive him. Before he died in 1764, he passed it on to his coachman Atkins, along with flour and money. Atkins continued to make a fortune in the diet cookie when he set up shop at 13 Green Street; he is given the name of Bath Oliver. It was advertised as “Old Bath Oliver Biscuits”, possessing the ability to reduce stomach acid.
The Bath Oliver is still sold commercially, branded with a portrait of William Oliver himself. They are no longer made in Bath and Oliver’s recipe for the cracker is still kept a secret. What is known from rare and ancient cookbooks is that Bath Oliver biscuits contain flour, yeast, water, milk and butter.
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