Summary
Originally Published: 2020-06-14
This week was very much a working week. With beautiful sunny weather I was able to accomplish lots of work. Being a history buff I found an article about “Hardtack” a bread that was sent with civil war soldiers. Being a history buff I had to make some!
Hardtack
I have always loved history and small oddities, hardtack definitely falls into both those categories. During the American Civil War this biscuit or bread was sent with soldiers because of its great properties for shelf life. Simply dip in something like soup and it softens up and is edible.
From my taste testing I found just trying to bite it would cause your dentist to start buying a bigger home. This stuff is hard! I guess if they ran out of ammunition they could simply hit each other with it. But all joking aside this is an excellent long term stable bread. Once placed into a vacuum sealer or mylar bag with oxygen absorbers it could stay good for many years.
I made two dozen and some scraps. The scraps I started eating and as long as you treat them like “rock” candy and leave them in your mouth for a while they can be chewed and actually aren’t that bad. Again this is a survival food and chewing it would like make you feel you are getting some substance anyway. The recipe is simple, 4 cups flour, 1 cup (and a bit) water and 2 tablespoons of ionized salt.
Before I go any further, the poster of the recipe did a really good job on the history and the pictures. His looks a lot better than mine. Click here to see the recipe.
Here is the dough rolled out.
This is made into 12, 3 inch by 3 inch squares, and here is a picture of it going into the oven.
It is placed in the oven for 4 hours at 250 degrees F. Basically you dehydrate it. And here it is ready to eat, and vacuum seal.
Other Work Done
Other than hardtack it was a very simple week of tending to the garden, splitting wood and general chores. Out here there really is only two seasons, winter and getting ready for winter.
Well it sure is nice to see the stores and other things finally opening again, stay safe!