10 March 2009

Hard Tack and Seabiscuit


The hardtack in the photo is a cracker made from flour, water, and salt.
Inexpensive and long-lasting, it is and was used for sustenance in the absence of perishable foods, commonly during long sea voyages and military campaigns… It is known by other names such as pilot bread (as rations for bush pilots), ship's biscuit, sea biscuit… or pejoratively "dog biscuits", "tooth dullers", "sheet iron" or "molar breakers"…

To soften it, it was often dunked in brine, coffee, or some other liquid or cooked into a skillet meal. Baked hard, it would keep for years as long as it was kept dry. For long voyages, hardtack was baked four times, rather than the more common two, and prepared six months before sailing.

[These biscuits were also] used extensively as a source of food by the "gold diggers" emigration to the gold mines of California in 1849. Since the journey took months from the starting point, pilot bread was stored in the wagon trains...

During the American Civil War, 3-inch by 3-inch hardtack was shipped out from Union and Confederate storehouses. Some of this hardtack had been stored from the 1846–8 Mexican-American War. With insect infestation common in improperly stored provisions, soldiers would breakup the hardtack and drop it into their morning coffee. This would not only soften the hardtack but the insects, mostly weevil larvae, would float to the top and the soldiers could skim off the insects and resume consumption

Those who buy commercially-baked pilot bread in the continental United States are often those who stock up on long-lived foods for disaster survival rations. Hardtack can comprise the bulk of dry food storage for some campers… Hard tack is also a mainstay in parts of Canada.
Hard Tack was also a well-known thoroughbred racehorse (a son of Man O' War). He was famous not for any racing accomplishments, but because he sired the world-famous Seabiscuit. Now you know why Seabiscuit got his name.

The recipe for hardtack is here.

A tip-of-the-hat to Scribal Terror for suggesting this topic.

3 comments:

  1. Hee Hee -- thanks for the recipe. Now I know what to make for the relatives arriving tonight. They can dunk it in the chili.

    And yes, you may delete this post if you wish. :)

    CCL

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  2. yay i can bake this for mrs worthingtons class for my project in civil war ecipes
    rachel-

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  3. 1975, at a Navy base in San Diego. A work detail was tasked to remove the cases of civil defense rations placed in the fall-out shelter in the early 1950s.

    Well, we assumed that since the dates on most of the boxes was the early 1950s with a few canned products dating back to World War Two.

    I tried one of the crackers. A square thing but not overly hard. Wrapped in thick papery stuff akin to wax paper but sealed from the outside air.

    Tasted like crap, I suppose, since I have never tasted crap and can not make a detailed comparison to a 20-plus years old cracker and the excreta of a critter.

    Sure didn't take a second bite but I did live and never did have to duck and cover.

    ReplyDelete