Ship's Biscuits - Hardtack Townsend Recipe

Originally known as Ship's Biscuits, Tara has been obsessed with trying Hardtack since High School English class. Since you guys love Townsend episodes we've decided to take a crack at this 18th-century recipe. Spoiler alert, "hard" is a very accurate description.

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[Sommertest]

Pro tip- The answer to “how much rum?” is always “more”.

[paca_bill]

Only mimic an adult up to the point where you stop having revert back to the child and have fun! You two know how to have fun; thanks for sharing it with us!

[Mcvthree]

My dog and I are still binge-watching. We love your antics.

[hannahpumpkins]

I lived in the Florida Keys for a long time, and worked aboard a few commercial boats; the captain would share his rum with the crew when we were working hard - we'd get some grog, which is rum mixed with water and lemon or lime, and sometimes a bit of sugar. Ice was always a welcome treat, but often it was just served at room temp! I remember being at the helm and this one captain brought me some grog for the journey back (since I'd have the wheel for several hours), and then he said, "Hannah, bring me that horizon and take us home".

[Mandalorian_of_Christ]

I knew exactly what Tara was talkin' about with the dough sculptors.

And Great Depression cooking is an AWESOME channel. Another is Kent Rollins

[parks]

Two of my favorite youtubers...townsends and you two! I am now streaming my laptop to my roku tv (55 inches of Tara and Natalie) so that I can comment, and like. Thanks for the lead to the great depression cooking channel. Arrrg....

[e.urbach]

Oh my gosh, I love Clara from Great Depression Cooking! It is so sad that she passed away. My grandma was Italian, and grew up during the Depression, and Clara reminds me of her, so much!

[nubzors]

Natalie, kneading is done to develop the gluton in the flour. The more kneading you do the more you relax/stretch the gluton protein chains and the more they get tangled together, resulting in a more elastic dough with more "chew" to it once cooked. This is why bread flour is high in gluton, to help make it easier to achieve that wonderful, chewy bread texture, and why cake flour has very little gluton, to help keep the cake tender and crumbly. E.g. NYC style Pizza dough = high gluton flour + lots & lots & lots of kneading VS Brownies = low gluton flour + minimal mixing with no kneading.

[dittejensen]

We made figures etc out of dough when I was a kid, as well! Here (Denmark) we call it trylledej (magic dough). It's pretty much the same as hardtack dough, only with a lot more salt.

[valv]

Salt dough might be what you and Grandma made Tara, it was equal parts flour and salt then add enough water to make a soft dough, after you shape it into ornaments you could bake it or just let it air dry! I made a garland of starfish that I used for my beach mantel, super easy! Cover the dough with a wet paper towel and tear off just enough to make your ornaments, don’t let the dough dry out till you’re do Enjoy!

[MKahn]

Natalie was still eating the hardtack at the end:
See? It is strangely addictive.

By the way, ship's biscuit is hardtack. "Tack" was slang for food among British sailors. When you got fresh (leavened) bread while in port (and the few days out that the bread would remain good), you were eating "soft tack."

Many things have more than one name. Bag/sack/poke for example. Those sailor tops you were wearing - were they shirts, blouses, tops, pullovers, tunics, jerseys, something else or more than one?

[teodorojaure]

Hi Tara and Natalie. I recommend when you try and eat your biscuits, place them in hot liquid like tea or coffee that has sugar in it. Or try using bouillon to soak it in. That way you won't wreck those beautiful smiles! As always I still want to marry both of you!

[MKahn]

I've made hard tack several times. To me, it's strangely addictive. I'll be eating it and think it's rather plain, but as soon as I finish that biscuit, I find I'm reaching for another. I think you may have used too much salt if you think it's gross, but maybe it's just too plain for your palate.

By the way, the pound of hard tack was in addition to the rest of the rations - you got that pound of hard tack every day. Your daily alcohol ration would have been 8 pints of beer or a half-pint of rum. Your other rations varied by day (these are the unprepared, dried amounts - a 1/2 pint of dried peas is a lot more once cooked):
Sunday: 1 pound of salt pork and 1/2 pint of dried peas
Monday: 1 pint oatmeal, 2 ounces butter, 4 ounces cheese
Tuesday: 2 pounds salt beef
Wednesday: 1/2 pint of dried peas, 1 pint oatmeal, 2 ounces butter, 4 ounces cheese
Thursday: 1 pound of salt pork and 1/2 pint of dried peas
Friday: 1/2 pint of dried peas, 1 pint oatmeal, 2 ounces butter, 4 ounces cheese
Saturday: 2 pounds salt beef
This amounts to at least 4, 500 calories per day. While the food was plain, the sailor ate better than at least half the population back on land.
If things like raisins or vegetables (carrots, onions, etc) were available, they were added. Whenever you were in (or had recently visited) a friendly port, fresh meat, flour, etc was substituted. The oatmeal was usually sweetened with molasses.

[GlassArtist]

Natalie and Tara - nicely (and comically) done ladies! The biscuits were originally a means of preserving the flour as a future food source. In some markets today, you can find "Pilot Bread" which is very similar, but not nearly so hard - goes very well with smoked oysters! I'm wondering if instead of the water, you mixed the flour with that switchel, whether the resulting biscuit might have a more appealing flavor? I mean, of what value is a rock hard biscuit that tastes like something you'd have scraped off your shoe? Switchel to the rescue! <g>

[NHPsychoticGoat]

I remember making figures with grammy, wed let them dry then paint them. They looked really nice.

[ericjohnson]

Mind blown, time travel as well. You will have to soak it in something. What could it

[FireflyScout]

Oh i know what you mean!! Its like salt dough or something.... They did it in my preschool. My mom didn't like the smell and said it was a waste cause it didnt last as long as play dough.

[shadodragonette]

Um, the ships biscuits were usually used somewhat like flour for other foods, example: gravy or stew. At least, that's how I understood it? I might be wrong, but I really thought even the ones the maggots got into were used for thickening, as opposed to out-right eating. "Hard tack" was taken on long over-land journeys, much like we would take crackers today. It could also be used to thicken soups or stews or whatever, but often included fat, dried fruit or roots, or even dried meat. With one or more additional ingredient(s), it could make the late winter months survivable. Either way, they were meant for long journeys, not every day.

[JenniferAnnifer]

Don't worry Tara, I've used salt dough to make ornaments too. Depression era cooking sounds interesting!

[wtr]

Watched that Townsend show. Actually made Ships Biscuits, still got them.