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An example of hardtack made by the
author, picture by the author
Everyone
has heard of hardtack, or hard bread, plain biscuit, ship’s biscuit, sea
biscuit, sheet-iron crackers or tooth-dullers.
Since it is close to the American Thanksgiving holiday, I thought that I
would do an article on food; I hope that you enjoy it and have fun making your
own plate of hardtack.
During
the 18th and 19th centuries hardtack wasn’t a survival
ration and in fact, was part of the regular ration when soft bread wasn’t
available, such as when you were aboard a ship or marching. Today, hardtack can be used as a survival
ration.
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Excerpts from Hardtack and Coffee,
by J. D. Billings, page 113 and 114
So just what is hardtack? How nutritious is it and how do you make it?
Hardtack
is simply a water and flour paste that is baked into a biscuit and dried until
it has the consistency of a ceramic tile.
Some recipes from the internet, call for the addition of salt or even
sugar to the flour and water, but as Jeff Pavlik writes on page 8 of “Reproducing
The Eighteenth-Century Biscuit”, “Biscuit makers of the period were well
informed of the detrimental effects of salt in a biscuit and were advised to ‘not
use salt…salt can make it more likely to attract moisture from the air’. Along with no mention of salt in any
documents on biscuits…” and “Sea-bisket-of excellent use for the Sea,
because baked without Salt…”.
Additionally, numerous writers have written that the addition of sugar
to the recipe, while it makes it more palatable, will likely reduce your
ability to store the biscuits for long periods of time. So, don’t use salt or sugar when making your
biscuits, if you want a ration with a long shelf life.
So,
what was a day’s ration of hardtack and just how nutritious is it? According to John D. Billings, writing on
page 112 of Hardtack And Coffee, an American Civil War Union Soldier, as
part of their daily ration, was supposed to receive “…one pound six ounces
of soft bread or one pound of hard bread”. When the soldiers were on the march, they
only received the hard tack. Billings
also wrote that while the hardtack was shipped to the Union Army by weight, it
was passed out to the men by number, with some regiments passing out nine biscuits
as a ration and in others a ration of hardtack was ten biscuits.
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An
excerpt from Hardtack and Coffee, by J. D. Billings, page 113
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The
recipe that I am using, calls for three American measuring cups of whole-wheat
stone-ground flour. I am using Hodgson
Mills stone-ground, whole-wheat flour, but you can use whatever stone-ground,
whole-wheat flour is available where you live.
Jeff Pavlik, the author of “Reproducing The Eighteenth-Century Biscuit”,
states on page 7 that these three cups of flour will weigh a pound. Additionally on page 9, he states that “The
recipe I have created will make 1 ½ pounds of unleavened dough…The water lost
baking and drying the biscuits will reduce the weight by 1/3”, which will
leave you with one pound of finished biscuits.
When I was finished baking my biscuits; I had ten biscuits, each three
inches (7.6 cm) wide by ½ inch (1.27 cm) thick, that did weigh altogether one
pound. However, this left me a little
confused, because according to the Hodgson Mills label, each cup of flour is
supposed to weigh four and a quarter ounces or 120 grams; and three cups would
weigh 13 ounces or 360 grams: this is three ounces short of a pound?! The answer turned out to be the difference
between sifted versus scooped-out-of-the-bag flour: sifted flour is fluffed up
and less fits into the measuring cup, while flour that you have
scooped-out-of-the-bag is packed down and more is in the measuring cup. Okay, mystery solved.
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Hodgson Mills whole wheat flour
nutrition information, picture by the author.
So,
how nutritious is hardtack? Well, if
three packed cups of flour equal a pound, and a pound is equal to 453 grams,
then the daily ration of hardtack would have the following nutrition facts printed
on the side of the box.
Okay,
so hardtack isn’t the most nutritious food choice out there and is lacking in
most of the necessary vitamins and nutrients, but it isn’t the least nutritious
food choice available to the modern American, either.
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An excerpt from “Reproducing The
Eighteenth-Century Biscuit”, by Jeff Pavlick, page 11
Now
to make some hardtack. I used Jeff
Pavlick’s recipe for hardtack in the preparation of this article, because Mr.
Pavlick is both a baker and a historian: for more information about him and
baking in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, go to http://colonialbaker.net/. Use the recipe above, supplemented with my
notes and pictures below to make your own hardtack.
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The ingredients, picture by the
author
The
recipe calls for 3 cups (453 grams) of white whole-wheat flour and a cup, plus
2 tablespoons (.28 liters) of water. The
recipe says that if the dough is too stiff to mix by hand add an additional
tablespoon (.015 liter) of water, when I made this recipe the last time, I
found that I needed to add an extra 1 ½ tablespoons (.02 liters) of water to
wet all of the flour.
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The resting dough, picture by the
author
Combine
the flour and dough and then let the stiff dough rest for ten minutes, so that
the flour will completely soak up the water.
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Kneading the dough, picture by the
author
Knead
the dough until it is smooth, this will take some time, but as the flour
absorbs all the water it will become easier.
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The
author’s antique biscuit cutters. The
one in the foreground, measures 3 inches (7.62 cm) across, picture by the
author
|
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Cutting the rolled dough with the
biscuit cutter, placing it on a cutting board and getting ready to poke
evaporation holes into the biscuits, pictures by the author
Instead
of dividing the dough into three to five pieces, rolling them into a ball and
then pressing them flat, as I did the first time I made this recipe; this time
I rolled the dough out flat with a rolling pin until it was a half inch (1.27
cm) thick. When I was done rolling the
dough out, I cut out the biscuits with my biscuit cutter, although you could
use a drinking glass just as easily. It
helps to lightly flour whatever surface you are rolling your dough on, as well
as lightly flouring the rolling pin; also dip your biscuit cutter or glass into
flour as well.
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Poking evaporation holes into the cut-out
biscuits, picture by the author.
Mr.
Pavlick’s recipe calls for using a pizza docker or ice pick to make evaporation
holes into the biscuits before baking. I
didn’t have a pizza docker or an ice pick, so I used a meat fork on my last
batch and a dinner fork on my first batch.
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| Just out of the oven and dehydrating while they cool, picture by the author. |
After
the biscuits are baked, it is very important that you let them continue to dry
for several days. On one of my earlier
batches, I made the mistake of putting them into plastic storage containers
before they were fully dehydrated: they turned all green and fuzzy with mold
before I could eat them.
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| The biscuits are now done, enjoy! Picture by the author. |
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| An excerpt from Hardtack and Coffee, by J. D. Billings, page 114-115 |
Hardtack
is one of the most indestructible foods you can carry, if it doesn’t get wet. If it gets wet or if it is packed away too
soon after baking, it will mold. So,
keep your hardtack dry! If it is dry,
and kept free of bugs, it will last almost forever. I have been at museums that have pieces of
hardtack from the American Civil War on display that are technically still edible,
and I have seen pictures of even older pieces of hardtack that are on display
at other museums.
So, when you need a survival ration for
your next wilderness adventure, perhaps you should carry some hardtack, it will
last forever, and you certainly won’t be tempted to eat it until it is truly
needed!
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This piece of hardtack, is from the
first batch that I ever made and is 12 years old, picture by the author.
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I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and my videos at
BandanaMan Productions and don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s
Journal Online and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube, and if you
have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site. I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric
Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds,
so watch for me.
Sources
Billings, John Davis; Hardtack and Coffee: Or, The
Unwritten Story of Army Life, [George M. Smith & Co., Boston, MA, 1889]
page 114-117
Colleary, Eric; “CIVIL
WAR RECIPE: HARDTACK (1861)”, June 26, 2013, [The American Table,], http://www.americantable.org/2013/06/civil-war-recipe-hardtack-1861/,
accessed 11/29/2019
Farmer,
Dennis and Carol; The King’s Bread, 2nd Rising: Cooking At
Niagara, 1726-1815, [Old Fort Niagara Association, Inc., Youngstown, NY
1989]
Pavlik,
Jeff; “Reproducing The Eighteenth-Century Biscuit”,
Journal of the Early Americas, Volume1, Issue 11, April/May 2011, p. 7-11
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