HARDTACK Civil War Era Recipe & Taste Test -- Will I chip a tooth?

During the American Civil War, Union soldiers often called hardtack, this bland, cracker-like staple of war, 'worm castles' and 'jawbreakers.' I'm fixing up a batch of hardtack to see just how bad it was. 😬
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Hardtack
5 C. all-purpose flour
1/2-1 C. water
1/2 t. salt

This video is NOT sponsored. Just making hardtack. 😉

[emmaponymous]

When I was six, an American civil war reenactor came to my school. They offered us hardtack to try but no one volunteered except me. I was convinced that it would be like an unfrosted Pop Tart and I was horrified as bit into it. Pretty sure the reenactor was too. 😅😅😅 And that's how I lost one of my front baby teeth. Hardtack: 1, Emma: O.

[sweeps]

I remember reading a book that mentions the soldiers eating hardtack in the dark so that they wouldn't have to know if they had bugs in them. Not sure what the book was, but it stuck with me.

[katynewman]

i lowkey always end up falling asleep to your videos you have just the kindest soothing voice ever

[tarstakars]

So you're supposed to take your "sheet iron biscuits" or "tooth dullers" as they were commonly known you soak them in some water or coffee after they're crumbled up and then you fry them up in bacon grease and eat them with your bacon. I've tried it actually it's pretty enjoyable. Another way is to soak your dried beans overnight and you fry up some bacon then you pull the bacon out of the grease and put your crumbled up hardtack and the beans and a little brown sugar in the bacon grease fry that all up and then you throw your bacon back in and eat that

[cynthialegge]

Hardtack is still eaten in Newfoundland, Canada . It is part of a dish called fish and brewis, (salt cod and hard tack)it is often accompanied by scruncheons which is just fried pork fat. So yummy

[CallieMasters]

My teeth aren't strong enough to try this.

[tracyheyward]

When my family went through hard times and we use flour, water, salt, and sugar to make our version of hoe cakes.

[fishandgarden]

Roman rusk is really hard. 50% honey 50% flour bake at 350 degrees for thirty minutes. It is like eating flour flavored hard candy. The Romans gave it to there army as rations.

[indoorsandout]

I make multigrain hardtack to take when hunting. The oat flour that makes up the bulk of the secret family recipe softens it a great deal. We also add more salt to replace what is lost by sweating during the hikes in and out. Our recipe is allegedly based on a Roman ration from the Hadrian's Wall garrison, but I think it is more likely to be from the Middle Ages. Anyways, it is oat, barley, and whole wheat flours, salt, and water. They are relatively soft. Rather than coffee, a cup of hot broth is better for dipping. My preference is mutton broth. But you can eat them straight and I do sometimes do that. When I was a child I would snack on them. On hunting trips, we also take jerky or pemmican. One piece of hardtack and one of pemmican makes a fine wilderness meal. Our pemmican is dried pounded meat, dried cranberries, peanuts, and rendered fat.

[Losttoanyreason]

They weren't really meant to be eaten like Saltines or Ritz crackers despite those that tried to do so. Many breaking teeth in the process. They were usually soaked to soften them before eating like say in coffee or milk or crushed and added to soups and stews to thicken them in place of flour which wasn't readily available many times. You should talk to reenactors to see how they used them in camp cooking.

[johnsimcoe]

When I was a kid my family and I did 1812 Reenactments where I used to have to eat a lot of Hardtack and other period dishes. It's nice to see someone else "suffer" through this. <3

[Entiox]

I've made hardtack several time. I like to cook them twice. The first at a higher temperature, around 400° for about 20-30 minutes, then they're removed and allowed to cool. After they're cool they go into a 250° oven for about 3-4 hours until very dry. A couple of years ago I came across some hardtack that had been forgotten in a pack that wasn't used anymore, it was about a decade old and tasted the same as when a week old.

[tippib]

I was told my great-grandfather had hardtack when he was a riverboat engineer on the Mississippi way back in the day. I'm also told that's where he developed a love of very strong, very sweet coffee. Makes me wonder if the hardtack had something to do with it...

[xSaucySirenx]

We’d make homemade Christmas ornaments with basically the same recipe when I was a kid. As long as they were sealed after painting they lasted forever lol You can use cookie cutters and have any shape you wanted.

[Kallolaina]

I used to be a Civil War reenactor. And, speaking from experience... the best way to eat hardtack is to soak it in the drippings from fried salt pork (which is like really thick bacon). It's still not a culinary delight. But, the addition of fat does make it easier to consume.

[SakuyaLuigi]

Hardtack is hard.
I want to try and make this but trying to recreate the original mixing and cooking methods. I don't have a stand mixer, so I have a head start xD

[inge]

Reminds me of the “ships biscuits” we used to eat as kids, holidaying on the seaside. The bakery made them as a reminder of the sailors long ago, who would have these as a staple. One of those biscuits would last us days as we would nibble away at them, until my mom threw them out. Happy days.

[pauln]

There are several things in the Grocery Store that are U.S. Civil War hold overs. Canned milk, Canned ham, Bouillon cubes, Deviled ham, desiccated vegetables, and instant coffee. Chicory coffee is still sold here in Utah.

[jmcosmos]

Hard tack and ship's biscuit kinda presumed you were first gonna soak them anything from a couple of hours to overnight to soften them AND get rid of the weevils (known in some places as "watering" it). After that you threw in whatever else you had available (soaked bully beef on board or on the march, fish if Cookie was any good with a long line) and boiled the hell out of it all, then ate the resulting mush.

[donna]

My Great Great Great Grandfather fought and died in the Gettysburg war. A distant relative of mine still has a small wooden box with some of his hardtack in it as well as some more of his belongings. Pretty amazing how resilient that stuff is.