How to make emergency survival biscuits (Hardtack)

If you have flour and water, you can make hardtack, a biscuit that will stand the test of time with proper storage. This extremely cheap and easy-to-make survival food was rationed out to soldiers and sailors throughout history. Union soldiers in the Civil War received nine to ten of these biscuits daily, and one soldier's memoir in particular (John Billings), documents a hilarious view that he, and most soldiers, had of this bland cracker back in the day.

According to Wikipedia, one museum purportedly contains a biscuit from 1852 that amazingly still appears to be edible.

A 50gram biscuit will contain just a little over 180 calories, 38 grams carbs, 2 grams fiber and 7 grams of protein. It is not the most nutritious thing, but it will keep you going until you can find the next steak and salad.

There are variations of the recipe, and in mine, I leave it out salt. You can certainly tweak things around by adding sugar and other ingredients to boost flavor and vitamins, however you do so at the expense of longevity. If you have no intentions of storing this for long periods of time, then by all means, have at it! Post a video of what you come up with :)

[luwdmke]

You can use these biscuits to patch holes in your roof or resurface your driveway.

[driftertravelerman]

salt is not optional IT IS ABSOLUTLY NOT OPTIONAL USE SALT


salt is used to kill airborne yeasts and to absorb moisture...

not using it will remove the long lasting properties


and those holes are to small

[JosephNBurch]

I keep having to throw away batches of biscuits, I can't seem to get the dancing part right...

[corn]

For that song at the beginning alone, you deserve so many more subs.

[asahoura]

Great video, very concise. Love your sense of humor, especially the pizza slicer!

[mattblatchley]

well done, sir...great presentation...one optional hint I would add...once you have the dough "ball" let it sit in the fridge for an hour or so in plastic wrap so that the flour absorbs all of the water...makes it a little easier to work with (this is what you do with homemade egg noodles which is the same thing except with egg added) but totally optional, of course...great VIDEO!

[magicmonkey]

Also when you out the biscuits in a shirt, you can use this shirt as a plate carrier

[jean-charlesnavet]

Salt is not optional !
you will need salt in war times and it is not easy to get, also salt keep the craker dry so it will store for a long time

[mwilson]

Lembas Bread. Great stuff, kept Sam and Frodo going for a long time, helped save the world.

[Saku]

Dude, I spent so much time dancing....

[TheCoffeehound]

Now all you need is a bit of pemmican. Not the non-meat "pemmican" bars they sell in camping stores, but the really lean dried and powdered meat mixed with suet that they used on the frontier. Mix it with crushed hard tack in a pot, and you have what passed for rations during the American Revolution.

[stevenardianto]

I really need to make hardtacks for a long fishing trip, so i clicked on this video and i laugh damn hard at the creative opening emergency biscuit song. Thank you so much !!😂😂😂 lol, got the recipe and got the comedy !

[StukaSteven]

"Get your self a pizza cutter" *has a picture of a cricular saw on screen*

[Vuohipukki]

Damn man you should totally keep doing videos like this. Really useful info and entertaining.

[faithpon]

This was hilarious....love the cleaning the guns bit!

[castironchaos]

Sarcastic teaching videos are the best! Love your attitude here, dude. Subscribed.

[exanimisrex]

Thanks, I can't wait to try these, laughed my a** off at that "clean your guns" comment.

[bakachan]

They still make this commercially. It's called pilot bread. They sell it at WinCo grocery stores, and mountain house sells them in airtight cans.

(The canned mountain house ones, are advertised as having a 30 year shelf life.)

[DeadLaine]

the amazing intro song and the heavy duty "pizza slicer" just got you a new sub XD

[smoothiedragon]

I'm gonna make dinosaur shaped hardtack

Update: the deed is done. The boys are complete