Hardtack : The Original Survival Food.

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[Rspenesmit]

I am a Cook for a Civil War re-enactment group, been doing it for over 30 years now, I began many years ago frying my hard tack in bacon fat, which is something just about every soldier & battlefield cooks had on hand with a lot of bacon, grease & hard tack, frying for a minute or 2 makes the outside crust much softer with an easier to bite crunch to it & the inside soft, & the bacon grease gives it an excellent flavor especially when adding a couple of spices, I got this idea from an older Lady I met on the battlefield at Gettysburg once with our group camping out & she showed me a letter that had been passed down in her Family for years, one of her relatives that fought in the war had written home to his Wife & mentioned the food they ate, including the hard tack & he said it could break teeth, but many began frying in bacon fat which made it much better to eat & add oregano.

[oldgettingolderhopefully]

I've always rolled it out thinner. Makes it easier to eat, and quicker to bake.

[muzzlevelocity]

Like many European nations, Romania requires a mandatory term in the military. Two immigrants from there once told my dad that in the mornings their breakfast was a biscuit and a cup of tea. They said that if you did not soak the biscuit in the tea it could be 'used as weapon'. Clearly hardtack was still alive and well in Romania at the time.

[fredalbrecht]

I have some I made back in 2011 in my cupboard. I pull it down every so often and check it out and eat a piece. So far so good.

[neoaliphant]

At 3:18 sootch mentions baking the hardtac multiple times, the word Biscuit comes from the french for baked

[Swamp-Fox]

Very interesting! I have always heard about hardtack, but never really knew what it was....now I know!

[giantskunk]

I used to make this for Civil War re-enactments. These days I use a biscuit cutter to make round ships biscuits (same recipe). They fit great in Talenti jars for long term storage to keep any insects away.

[winniethepoohandeeyore]

Everyone should know how to make flatbreads and keep flour, cornmeal, salt around all the time

[omnomstaypuft]

My middle school U.S. history teacher brought one to class and presented it as part of his lesson. Lunchtime was still a ways off, so I asked if I could snack on it, which he allowed. Tasted pretty salty and of course hard to chew, but I managed to finish it after slowly doing many small gnaws on it. Helped stave off my hunger that’s for sure. :P

[jamespruett]

Of all the marvelous videos you have made this to me is the best I never new hardtack was this easy to make

[bdcochran]

1. I have a presentation that I wrote in French about historical military rations in the French Army. I will distill it for you in English with some commentary:
1. Hardtack is simply plain flour, water and salt. No additives. It will keep for decades. If it gets weevils, they are edible too. You won't get poisoned.
2. Napoleon had a contest for making preserved rations for the French Army. The winner received a large reward. The fellow wrote a book in French about preserving food that became a best seller in English speaking Great Britain. Other than canned tomatoes, if you keep canned food out of the sun and heat, it will generally outlive you.

The American Civil War ration for a soldier (smaller then) was 1 - 1 and 1/2 pounds of dried beef or salt pork, one pound of hardtack, coffee and whatever greens you could find.

A pound of hardtack has more calories than a pound of rice. All you need is warm water, not a cooking fire, cleaning water, and a lot of prep time. The best time to make it is in the winter time, in the kitchen, in the oven at less than 300 degrees for hours and warm the house. So the oven is doing double duty. 5 pounds of flour makes a bit more than 5 pounds of hardtack. Ok, if you are a fatty, buy a 50 pound bag. It will last you a month and you will have some left over.

Ok. Go price a number 10 can of pilot bread (it is hard tack) The light weight can costs $15 or so. Find out the weight of the content. Figure out the price of that flour per ounce. Then go to the supermarket, buy the cheapest enriched white flour and figure out the price per ounce. The hardtack you make can be put into ziplock baggies and last as long at the expensive pilot bread in the premium cans.

[clifffree]

Having a very simple item that can used in many ways that has a long shelf life makes such good sense. Also, speaking from experience, that beats the C Rations we had in the 70's. Thanks for demo. I already wrote the recipe. Thank you so much for the information, Don.

[debbiecurtis]

Buy and stockpile bone broth, beef consumme, Oxo cubes, Bovril, Marmite, beef jerky, and biltong. These can be the base of a liquid to soak hardtack in. Maybe add a dash of soy sauce and Japanese miso soup or bonito dried tuna flakes from an Asian supermarket. Dried mushrooms would go well with this too, and dried herbs.

Crista Scwartz at Prepsteaders makes hardtack, and also makes PORTABLE SOUP to eat with it. That's basically bone broth reduced down and dried out for several days until bone dry. Then reconstitute the portable soup with boiling water, add fresh or dried herbs, salt n pepper, and hardtack.
Townsends have videos in 18th Century cooking, and hardtack in particular.

[debbiecurtis]

I'm working on numerous hardtack recipes. I've been experimenting with strong plain white flour, cornmeal, salt, pepper, herbs, powdered milk, desiccated coconut and ground almond, and poppy seed, sesame and chia. I'll be gifting these to friends in my neighbourhood.

[debbiecurtis]

I baked hardtack last week. This week I'm baking more hardtack, and waxing cheese.

[munchkindoodles]

My husband and I were talking about hardtack and trying to make it a few weeks ago. After watching this I feel I can do it. Your daughter did a great how to. Hearing about how to use hardtack was also very helpful. That was one of my hesitations was I didn’t know what to do with it if I did make it. 😄 Thank you!

[howyoudurrinhunneh]

I know what it is because I use to read my papaw's Longarm books he kept next to the toliet.

[germanprepper]

Every household should be stacking food to the rafters now. I have regular intel up on YT. Keep prepping guys 👍 🙏 ✝️

[PRiver-svmc]

A SP kitchen session without a rolling pin. Mrs. SP keeps it in a holster always by her side? We ALL appreciate Sarah Mac!!!

[nagaviper]

When you are dipping it in the coffee it made me think of what you do with biscotti.