Tasty tasty Hardtack?!

[Kansas Jake]

I make it with whole wheat and add a bit of Salt to improve the flavor and bake in the oven at a low setting. I got the recipe from an old thread on here. It is a tooth breaker so soaking in the mouth or with something else helps. I bag it and keep it in the freezer to extend flavor and keep bugs out of it.

 

[Carbon 6]

Isn’t matzo just flour and water.
It’s much thinner

Well I'll admit it been a while since I ate either but i'm pretty sure the only stead fast rule for matzo is that it is not leavened..
I don;t recall Matzo ever breaking my teeth.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

Here is a guy eating some original Civil War hardtack:

Hardtack is fun to make and pretty practical for field use. Pair it with some pemmican and coffee for some real 19th century survival food!

 

[Carbon 6]

The closest modern cracker that I could find is what we call soda crackers, then they are a ways from hard tac. These soda crackers are good crushed up with some warm milk and nutmeg or cinnamon. You can usually find them in the Amish, Mennonite markets. They are round and kind of look like a hard biscuit.

Goya makes these crackers that are about the size of a chew can and half as thick, resembling hard tack or ships biscuit without breaking your teeth, They are much harder than a regular cracker though, and tasty.

 

[tenngun]

Well I'll admit it been a while since I ate either but i'm pretty sure the only stead fast rule for matzo is that it is not leavened..
I don;t recall Matzo ever breaking my teeth.

I wonder why. Is it just the thickness or because it’s quickly toasted quickly vs slowly baked.
The biscuit recipe you quoted will keep a while for trekking or camp. While not as much an iron ration as ships bread it would serve our historic needs well and taste better and be easier on old teeth.

 

[Carbon 6]

I wonder why. Is it just the thickness or because it’s quickly toasted quickly vs slowly baked.

I think baking time is part of it but so is mixing time and thickness , From what i gather it is mixed and cooked very quickly so gluten doesn't have time to develop.
Combine that with the inclusion of other grains and olive oil and you end up with a completely different product.

I'm a fan of knäckebröd and traditionally it was hung from the ceiling and kept all winter.

 

[tenngun]

I not familiar with that what is it?

 

[Carbon 6]

I not familiar with that what is it?

Probably off topic, I sent it to you.

 

[Brokennock]

Confused. I see all these suggestions for how to eat a rock made of flour, pairing it with various other foods to make it palatable. If I have pemmican, or jerky, or salt pork/bacon, or various fruits or veggies (wild or brought with), why the heck would I be eating hard tac? If I need something with the longevity of hard tac, milk probably isn't going to make the trip. Most of these suggestions involve having food, why are we making such an effort to eat something that is clearly, not food?

 

[Tumbledown]

Confused. I see all these suggestions for how to eat a rock made of flour, pairing it with various other foods to make it palatable. If I have pemmican, or jerky, or salt pork/bacon, or various fruits or veggies (wild or brought with), why the heck would I be eating hard tac? If I need something with the longevity of hard tac, milk probably isn't going to make the trip. Most of these suggestions involve having food, why are we making such an effort to eat something that is clearly, not food?

Because the carbs provided by hard tack/ sea biscuits was pound for pound invaluable. Pemmican was probably virtually unknown beyond the Native American cultures. Fruuts or vegetables would only be available in season and not keep well. Salted/dried meats were not always available, but when stewed in some water to reconstitute, with some biscuits in to thicken, made for an often acceptable hot meal.

It was food, just not what we consider something we would *want* to eat. Well, neither did the average sailor or soldier. When one reads how often they went without *anything* to eat for days, one understands how even rocks of flour were welcomed.

 

[Brokennock]

Because the carbs provided by hard tack/ sea biscuits was pound for pound invaluable. Pemmican was probably virtually unknown beyond the Native American cultures. Fruuts or vegetables would only be available in season and not keep well. Salted/dried meats were not always available, but when stewed in some water to reconstitute, with some biscuits in to thicken, made for an often acceptable hot meal.

It was food, just not what we consider something we would *want* to eat. Well, neither did the average sailor or soldier. When one reads how often they went without *anything* to eat for days, one understands how even rocks of flour were welcomed.

I could make the argument that wheat flour products are not food. But that is another discussion, as is arguing that the carbs were not needed.

More jermain to the discussion is that my post was about all the replies matching hard tac with, or adding to hard tac, other foods.

You are correct, salted dried meats, fruits and vegetables, were not always available. But almost every post here involves using other foods to make hard tac edible.

 

[Tumbledown]

You are correct, salted dried meats, fruits and vegetables, were not always available. But almost every post here involves using other foods to make hard tac edible.

Edible by our standards. We can't judge 250-year old diets by our modern pallets.

 

[tenngun]

I could make the argument that wheat flour products are not food. But that is another discussion, as is arguing that the carbs were not needed.

More jermain to the discussion is that my post was about all the replies matching hard tac with, or adding to hard tac, other foods.

You are correct, salted dried meats, fruits and vegetables, were not always available. But almost every post here involves using other foods to make hard tac edible.

It’s not inedible. It has a nutty flavor. It is hard and human teeth aren’t good at chomping it. It is a handy way to keep bread and most of the time it won’t get weavilelly.
Bread was a staple of life and people were used to having some sort of bread.
While you could dip hard tact in hot coffee to make it so it could be bitten it was served abound ship or in soldiers camp broke up in the was above shown.
Lobscose, a meat stew thickened with ships bread, bugalo a mush often made with oatmeal was made with crushed bread often and served sweet with molasses or savory with the slush that formed on soaking salt meat.
I think it’s part of the historic experience to eat the food the old timers ate.
Plumb duff was a common dessert for the lower classes.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Carbon 6, I looked at them in the grocery store today will have to give them a try they looked very similar to the soda crackers I mentioned in a earlier post.

 

[Carbon 6]

Edible by our standards. We can't judge 250-year old diets by our modern pallets.

How many of us know famine ? Anything beats starving to death.

 

[Carbon 6]

Carbon 6, I looked at them in the grocery store today will have to give them a try they looked very similar to the soda crackers I mentioned in a earlier post.

I assume you are referring to the Goya crackers, they make several different kinds as well as saltines. The ones in the bags come in different flavors, I get the plain ones. they are thicker, harder and taste different than a soda cracker. Almost like a bland animal cracker.

Try'em life's too short.


These are good too.

 

[russellshaffer]

Here's a recipe I found. I have been meaning to try it but you guys can be the first to try it. I think the oatmeal and shortening soften it up so it probably won't keep for 20 years.

Hardtack is one of the survival foods of the American frontier. Movies and television often portray hardtack as being a bad-tasting, tooth breaking assault on the taste buds, but this is not at all true. This being said, traditional hardtack is nothing to write home about taste-wise. It is basically made of flour, salt, and water; mixed into a dough, rolled out, and baked. Simple to make, full of carbs, but not very tasty. The recipe that I am giving you here adds just four simple ingredients that make a world of difference in the taste of the final product. It’s so good, that if I lived in Beverly Hills, I’d call these handmade artisan-bread crackers; but, I live in the backwoods of East Texas so I guess I’ll just call it hardtack. Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients
1 ½ cups of all-purpose or whole wheat flour
1 cup quick oats oatmeal (not instant)
1 teaspoon of salt
¾ teaspoon of baking soda
¼ cup of sugar
1/3 cup of vegetable shortening, lard, or oil
¾ cup of warm water

http://sensiblesurvival.blogspot.com/2015/03/how-to-make-good-tasting-hardtack.html

 

[Carbon 6]

That recipe looks familiar, I'l have to check my recipe file.
Yep,
It's similar to my oat biscuit recipe.

Rolled oat biscuits


Ingredients
1 tsp Baking powder
1 cup Flour
1 tsp Ground ginger
180 g or 1 stick Butter
1 cup Sugar brown
2 cups Rolled oats
½ tsp Baking soda
¼ cup Water

 

[LuVerne Schumann]

I used to make hard tack/ship's bread/biscuit for a kids' program.

Depending on how much salt you use in preparation, it isn't that bad.

A key component to preparation is how much you compress the dough. The more you compress it, the longer it lasts and the harder it is.

Prior to modern flour treatment, the common weevil eggs in wheat flour resulted in weevils inevitably being part of the hard tack experience. Just more protein.

 

[russellshaffer]

I bet your biscuits won't keep for 20 years either. Making them edible and good tasting takes away the longevity.