Hardtack : The Original Survival Food.
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- Опубликовано: 29 янв 2023
- Hardtack has been around in various forms since the invention of Flour. Consisting of only Flour, Water and Salt, it's simple and inexpensive to make. We demonstrate how to eat it and make it. Thanks to Sarah Mac for demonstrating how to make it. Her RUclips Channel : / @braddle9547 #Hardtack #Survivalfood #CivilWar
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I am a Cook for a Civil War re-enactment group, been doing it for over 30 years now, I began many years ago frying my hard tack in bacon fat, which is something just about every soldier & battlefield cooks had on hand with a lot of bacon, grease & hard tack, frying for a minute or 2 makes the outside crust much softer with an easier to bite crunch to it & the inside soft, & the bacon grease gives it an excellent flavor especially when adding a couple of spices, I got this idea from an older Lady I met on the battlefield at Gettysburg once with our group camping out & she showed me a letter that had been passed down in her Family for years, one of her relatives that fought in the war had written home to his Wife & mentioned the food they ate, including the hard tack & he said it could break teeth, but many began frying in bacon fat which made it much better to eat & add oregano.
They knew…bacon makes pretty much everything better lol 👍🏻
I've always rolled it out thinner. Makes it easier to eat, and quicker to bake.
Like many European nations, Romania requires a mandatory term in the military. Two immigrants from there once told my dad that in the mornings their breakfast was a biscuit and a cup of tea. They said that if you did not soak the biscuit in the tea it could be 'used as weapon'. Clearly hardtack was still alive and well in Romania at the time.
I have some I made back in 2011 in my cupboard. I pull it down every so often and check it out and eat a piece. So far so good.
Very interesting! I have always heard about hardtack, but never really knew what it was....now I know!
At 3:18 sootch mentions baking the hardtac multiple times, the word Biscuit comes from the french for baked twice.....
Everyone should know how to make flatbreads and keep flour, cornmeal, salt around all the time
I used to make this for Civil War re-enactments. These days I use a biscuit cutter to make round ships biscuits (same recipe). They fit great in Talenti jars for long term storage to keep any insects away.
I actually have a "Hardtack cutter" A 4" square cookie cutter with Screws in it to make the holes the proper spacing.
Good video, love the video from Sarah Mac…loved it and will use her recipe. Thanks again Sootch!
Thanks for the great recipe!
My middle school U.S. history teacher brought one to class and presented it as part of his lesson. Lunchtime was still a ways off, so I asked if I could snack on it, which he allowed. Tasted pretty salty and of course hard to chew, but I managed to finish it after slowly doing many small gnaws on it. Helped stave off my hunger that’s for sure. :P
Good thing your parents didn't sue for breaking your teeth
Thank you Sootch and Sarah Mac!
Holy moly! Didn't expect your video would go from history lessons to MRE review and culinary show. Now you make me want to try one
I baked hardtack last week. This week I'm baking more hardtack, and waxing cheese.
Of all the marvelous videos you have made this to me is the best I never new hardtack was this easy to make
Thanks James!
James it's so easy. I weigh my flour, and add water by sight, add slowly. You don't want dough too dry or too wet. Flour (verb) the rolling board and rolling pin. You can cut with a knife then poke with chopsticks, or use a square or round cookie cutter or jar lid. Then add the holes. I put mine on baking paper on a tray. I check if mine are light gold, then flip them over, and bake a few minutes on the other side. Then just let them cool. Once bone dry, you can store in mason jars with a few dried bay leaves.
Having a very simple item that can used in many ways that has a long shelf life makes such good sense. Also, speaking from experience, that beats the C Rations we had in the 70's. Thanks for demo. I already wrote the recipe. Thank you so much for the information, Don.
C rations had nutritional balance. Just hard tack is a bad idea.
C-rats had a newer version of hardtack the tin of crackers. I liked the turkey loaf C-ration.
1. I have a presentation that I wrote in French about historical military rations in the French Army. I will distill it for you in English with some commentary:
1. Hardtack is simply plain flour, water and salt. No additives. It will keep for decades. If it gets weevils, they are edible too. You won't get poisoned.
2. Napoleon had a contest for making preserved rations for the French Army. The winner received a large reward. The fellow wrote a book in French about preserving food that became a best seller in English speaking Great Britain. Other than canned tomatoes, if you keep canned food out of the sun and heat, it will generally outlive you.
The American Civil War ration for a soldier (smaller then) was 1 - 1 and 1/2 pounds of dried beef or salt pork, one pound of hardtack, coffee and whatever greens you could find.
A pound of hardtack has more calories than a pound of rice. All you need is warm water, not a cooking fire, cleaning water, and a lot of prep time. The best time to make it is in the winter time, in the kitchen, in the oven at less than 300 degrees for hours and warm the house. So the oven is doing double duty. 5 pounds of flour makes a bit more than 5 pounds of hardtack. Ok, if you are a fatty, buy a 50 pound bag. It will last you a month and you will have some left over.
Ok. Go price a number 10 can of pilot bread (it is hard tack) The light weight can costs $15 or so. Find out the weight of the content. Figure out the price of that flour per ounce. Then go to the supermarket, buy the cheapest enriched white flour and figure out the price per ounce. The hardtack you make can be put into ziplock baggies and last as long at the expensive pilot bread in the premium cans.
Excellent video to teach a skill that unfortunately maybe be necessary in the days to come. Thanks!
Great video. Great topic.
Thank you! I had heard about those very hard survival "biscuits" and it's nice to see some of the things that can be done with them.
I am a Cook for a Civil War re-enactment group, been doing it for over 30 years now, I began many years ago frying my hard tack in bacon fat, which is something just about every soldier & battlefield cooks had on hand with a lot of bacon, grease & hard tack, frying for a minute or 2 makes the outside crust much softer with an easier to bite crunch to it & the inside soft, & the bacon grease gives it an excellent flavor especially when adding a couple of spices, I got this idea from an older Lady I met on the battlefield at Gettysburg once with our group camping out & she showed me a letter that had been passed down in her Family for years, one of her relatives that fought in the war had written home to his Wife & mentioned the food they ate, including the hard tack & he said it could break teeth, but many began frying in bacon fat which made it much better to eat & add oregano.
Great video, Mahalo for sharing.
I'm working on numerous hardtack recipes. I've been experimenting with strong plain white flour, cornmeal, salt, pepper, herbs, powdered milk, desiccated coconut and ground almond, and poppy seed, sesame and chia. I'll be gifting these to friends in my neighbourhood.
My husband and I were talking about hardtack and trying to make it a few weeks ago. After watching this I feel I can do it. Your daughter did a great how to. Hearing about how to use hardtack was also very helpful. That was one of my hesitations was I didn’t know what to do with it if I did make it. 😄 Thank you!
I'm glad it helped! With the base of flour, water and salt, there are so many things you can add to it once you moisten it. Plus it's cheap to make. Thanks Mama Wolf!
I know what it is because I use to read my papaw's Longarm books he kept next to the toliet.
Thank you for the information, I didn’t realize it lasted
Thank you for this video. I know you had done one in the past and this one has inspired me to try an augmented version.
Several years ago my son was diagnosed with a severe Gluten allergy (bordering on Celiac) and the struggle to find affordable survival foods has been real.
I had written Hardtack off because of this, but since learning of his allergy and the different options out there for his diet, I think I am willing to try this out. There are many types of Wheat Flour substitutes, that may or may not have the same shelf life and I will give them a try. Krusteaz GF flour and a couple other brands use a blend of flours (ex Brown Rice and Sorgum), and I think if prepared properly, then stored properly, it would make a good substitute. We are talking calories here.
Thank you for the inspiration, and thank you Sarah Mac for the instructional video!
I was wondering if Higher Nutrient Dense flours could be used ,, like Coconut or Quinoa Flours or what if one added Freeze Dried Chia Seed Powder or some other high Nutrient Dense Seed powders ??? Even if it only lasts 30 years instead of 100 years.
Good video , thanks for sharing , God bless !
Thanks Michael!
God Bless you~
A SP kitchen session without a rolling pin. Mrs. SP keeps it in a holster always by her side? We ALL appreciate Sarah Mac!!!
Good stuff.
Loved the video!
Great information, hope you are having a wonderful day today ❤️
Thanks Willy Jilly! I hope you are too!
Every household should be stacking food to the rafters now. I have regular intel up on YT. Keep prepping guys 👍 🙏 ✝️
You Glow in The Dark
When you are dipping it in the coffee it made me think of what you do with biscotti.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for stopping by Shirley!
Another great video thanks.🇦🇺
Buy and stockpile bone broth, beef consumme, Oxo cubes, Bovril, Marmite, beef jerky, and biltong. These can be the base of a liquid to soak hardtack in. Maybe add a dash of soy sauce and Japanese miso soup or bonito dried tuna flakes from an Asian supermarket. Dried mushrooms would go well with this too, and dried herbs.
Crista Scwartz at Prepsteaders makes hardtack, and also makes PORTABLE SOUP to eat with it. That's basically bone broth reduced down and dried out for several days until bone dry. Then reconstitute the portable soup with boiling water, add fresh or dried herbs, salt n pepper, and hardtack.
Townsends have videos in 18th Century cooking, and hardtack in particular.
Unopened, soy sauce has an indefinite shelf life.
Note the difference between eatable and enjoyable
Hardtack was also known as ship’s biscuit (biscuit literally meaning “twice baked”) and sometimes weevils would get into the hardtack and chew tunnels through the hardtack. This made it easier to chew and/or break.
Thanks, Don & Sarah! I just put a test batch in the oven. I wonder if it would soften if cooked in a pan with butter (& end up kind of like bannock)? I’ll do some experimenting.
I made some of these a few years ago, and they kept for a couple of years before we ditched them during a move (with the plan of making more of course). They kind of are what they are, I saw them more as a way to store flour that as a food item. Pro tip 😅, they make pretty good "slicker dumplings" of sorts, cooked in stews or soups. They're one of those foods that everybody hates, and historically always has, and yet they are still around for a reason.
what is the reason
Great video, pemmican would be good too. But it is extremely time consuming, and you need a lot of meat also.
Thanks 😁
Mixing the flour with chicken stock and spices (like Italian seasoning) would be delicious, even dipped in water. Or, some cinnamon for the honey dessert.
In Alaska we have pilot bread
There's also Skillygalee. Soak the hardtack in coffee or water for a while. Cook bacon in a pan until you have a good amount of grease and fry the hardtack
When I lived in New Hampshire, I did Civil War Reenacting. I made my own hardtack.. it lasted for years in a haversack. Sometimes I would put cracked pepper in it or some Rosemary just to relieve the monotony. Mostly I just soaked it in whatever slop I was eating or nibble or suck on it while waiting to go into battle. For a real CW soldier's perspective on it, I recommend John Billings book "Hardtack and Coffee"
Good info ty
So this is was Mr.Krabs shipmates we’re forced to eat in the navy 😂
"Ship's Biscuit" It was round but the formula was the same.
Would be a good idea to make these at regular intervals and have a bag or so to go with the shelves of canned soups,stews,chilis etc. that a lot of ppl prep. Also easier to use and more versatile in a bugout situation than a bag of rice^^
I remember well back in the 70's, I was in a Confederate reenactment unit, and the big thing that was batted around was "Authentic". And our encampments always included hardtack. A member's wife was a baker by trade, and she would bake of a ton of it. But still; coffee, bacon grease, beer, and such was always used. We all preferred to avoid the dentist!😬
Good evening from Syracuse NY brother and everyone else and soak the hard tack before trying to eat it
Or visit your local dentist! 😂 Thanks Earl!
Yes my friend
I made some just last week. If you add some oil it is softer and much more edible. I like to put some garlic, pepper and salt on top and it makes it delicious! Rarely made it past the first day. 👍
Btw Good job Sooch.
Thanks!
the whole point is to not use oil. oil goes rancid.
I am a Cook for a Civil War re-enactment group, been doing it for over 30 years now, I began many years ago frying my hard tack in bacon fat, which is something just about every soldier & battlefield cooks had on hand with a lot of bacon, grease & hard tack, frying for a minute or 2 makes the outside crust much softer with an easier to bite crunch to it & the inside soft, & the bacon grease gives it an excellent flavor especially when adding a couple of spices, I got this idea from an older Lady I met on the battlefield at Gettysburg once with our group camping out & she showed me a letter that had been passed down in her Family for years, one of her relatives that fought in the war had written home to his Wife & mentioned the food they ate, including the hard tack & he said it could break teeth, but many began frying in bacon fat which made it much better to eat & add oregano.
I love hard tack, I bake mine thin as I can so it breaks easily. I let it soak a little in my soup and I like the taste. It's super easy to make too.
NO need for that, I am a Cook for a Civil War re-enactment group, been doing it for over 30 years now, I began many years ago frying my hard tack in bacon fat, which is something just about every soldier & battlefield cooks had on hand with a lot of bacon, grease & hard tack, frying for a minute or 2 makes the outside crust much softer with an easier to bite crunch to it & the inside soft, & the bacon grease gives it an excellent flavor especially when adding a couple of spices, I got this idea from an older Lady I met on the battlefield at Gettysburg once with our group camping out & she showed me a letter that had been passed down in her Family for years, one of her relatives that fought in the war had written home to his Wife & mentioned the food they ate, including the hard tack & he said it could break teeth, but many began frying in bacon fat which made it much better to eat & add oregano.
In the soup is really good. Don’t eat pork let alone the fat.
@@RspenesmitHellfired stew, right?
I made hardtack as an experiment once.
Troops, I'm here to tell you survival is over-rated.
If u use self rising flour, it becomes fluffy in the middle and is edible fresh out the oven.
I'd be tempted to add a bit of garlic salt to the mix, or chili powder to give them a little flavor. I don't think this would decrease the shelf life of the hardtack, but I could be wrong. Thoughts?
Great history lesson! Nowdays crisp bread crackers are just as good and you don't have to break your teeth ))
They are also great for canape snacks for your next house wine party ))
Although they don't have any fats in them, they are usually made with higher moisture whole grains, so they will go bad a lot sooner than actual pilot breat or hard tack
@@nukezat Perhaps yes. I've eaten Finn Crisp Rye bread that was 12 years old lost in the depths of the pantry, it was perfectly eatable and very dry
The best way to store flour, long term, is to put 8 cups in a paper lunch sack, fold, and tape with butchers tape, and vacuum seal in a gallon sized vac seal bag. Store in a dry, dark place. Sugar stores the same way.
how does the paper help?
@@DrSchor It keeps the flour contained, blocks light, and the vaccum sealer doesn't suck it up into the apparatus. After all, you can't simply vacuum seal a sealer bag full of flour or it will be sucked into the sealer. Also, flour will store "indefinitely", as a matter of speaking, if it deprived of oxygen and light. There are so many factors that can go into that, so I'll just leave that part open for debate. However, for a matter of fact, without light and oxygen, under ideal conditions, flour can last as long as the flour vessels did in the Valley of the Kings before being uncovered.
@@DrSchor It keeps the flour from being sucked out with the air.
I bet if you added a steak, a baked potato, and a mug of beer to it, it would be real good!
We called it dog biscuits. It was left overnight in coffee and eaten in the morning.
A lot of times, they would kind of pound the hardtack and then soak it. It would end up like a porridge.
Zaxby's Hardtack Chicken is delicious!!!
😂😂😂 Chicken Jerky! Thanks for the laugh Dave
Cubed broth and water would work well
because sailors had no option but to eat hardtack, bug infested or not, typically they ate it below deck...in the dark
You could put hardtack in hot soup 🍲 for several minutes!
Hardtack ships biscuits either way its very simple not great tasting but a good idea for stocking up. Remember hearing a lot of stories of the civil war soldiers adding it to their coffee and scraping out the worms
scraping out the worms is a mistake, why throw away protein?
Store your hardtack with dried bay leaves, preferably in mylar bags or mason jars. Would oxygen absorbers help deter pests?
I heard a tall tale that at the start of the Civil War they used hardtack leftover from the War of 1812. Don't know if this was true at all.
why are you telling us this?
Interesting.
Made some in high school as a class project. Not too bad tbh. Probably just didn't cook enough moisture out lol
I made shoo fly pie for my class project! Hehe
Dear Preppers, I have followed you for months and thank you for all information! Learned a lot and now keep up dynamic storage for 4 months. Question: Do you really believe in SHTF coming possibly every day or is this just part of prepper system? Asking for a friend...😘
@@karinfend2980 all you need to do is look at what's going on in the world around you. If you live be in a state that's has bad weather such as tornados on a regular basis and emergency situation could happen any day.
@@karinfend2980 down the street from me, 75 households had their very own SHTF when a fire decimated their dwellings and all their belongings. They learned then the building is completely uninsured, so they will get nothing, ever.
Perhaps you live in a place which has a gentle climate, no geological threats, a robust nd locally independent economy, a majority of decent people, no violent crime, and abundant natural resources. Most of humanity does not.
I love Hardtack. Break it up & pop it in your mouth. Don't chew it, just hold it in your mouth while hiking, hunting, etc... Kinda like chewing gum without the chewing. Like the doughy taste.
The best way I can describe the taste is like the corner piece of pizza crust. It’s really good as a secondary food but as a primary food it’s really dry. Being so hard, it kind of gives you a headache
I wonder if you could add Almond Four to your hard tack for protein/vitamin additions while still keeping the lifespan of hardtack or with just a little loss?
Nut flours have a much shorter shelf life than wheat flour. You'd have to make your own version and experiment to find out the shelf life, I am guessing. I have not heard of anyone making hardtack with non-wheat flours. I'd definitely be interested, as I am allergic to wheat.
What 'if': the hardtack were previously cut into smaller 'gum drop' sizes? Then one could just pop one in their mouth and let it dissolve slowly.
Also I would imagine they would cook and dry out the moisture quicker that way too, good idea^^
@@goofyroofy Plus could more easily share with others (given the same amount of overall hardtack).
Can you mix protein powder in with it before baking to make it more nutritional
We call them Stale Crackers
They will not go stale for 25 years if kept in airtight packaging.
In Antarctica, they use sledge biscuits and pemmican in a stew and call it hoosh.
I'm pretty sure pemmican was the original survival food. At least in North America.
Not sure that that stuf pre-dates smoke cured meats, and jerky style meats, which the Eskimos, and American Indians were making before the English arrived.
@@chrissewell1608 Probably around the same time. Depending on who you ask, American Indians and their predecessors were eating pemmican way before Europeans arrived on the continent.
@@trapperscout2046 Really? I didn't know that. I thought the Europeans brought that cooking method with them. Who knows, maybe the vikings did, when they first came here?
@@chrissewell1608 the vikings ate dried fish
Just about every time you said hard tack, the captioning rendered heart attack.
Great video. How would you recommend storing it?
Airtight container, controlled temperature and out of the sunlight. It wasn't stored that way during the Civil War so that just may be a bonus. Thanks
@@SensiblePrepper Can we vacuum seal the hardtack in mylar bags first before placing it in an airtight container? The vacuum seal should maintain freshness and keep out the bugs.
I know that it’s an oldie but still a goodie… Could you make a video about how to survive the tragic scenes in the movie, “The Edge” (1997) please?
I thought this was a Pop Tart.
Some of the CW reenactors would put Pop Tarts in their haversack and call it "Hardtack" Farbs.
I've heard that gravy is hard tac but havnt seen or found any ways of doing it. Guess I could Google it. After all gravy is flour.
How can you tell if they are dry in the middle? The middle stayed darker. Does that mean it still has moisture in it?
Theres a saying in the Philippines, “Walang matigas na tinapay sa mainit na kape”. “ no such thing as hard bread over hot coffee” 😅
I like that!
I would think the same amount of sugar as Salt would work, since it doesn’t go bad, or honey, thoughts?
As it was so well presented, could she do a pemican demo to?
I add raw cane sugar , honey , herbs and dehydrated fruit . 😁😁😁
Sometimes salt can be hard to come by.
We need salt to survive
So it's probably a good idea to add some salt to the biscuits
I wonder if freeze drying would be better
I dont mind hard tack with a good bit of salt in it. i cam munch on it slowly and its easy enough to eat.
I add dried rosemary to mine
Can it be ground back to a “powder” consistency and used like flower??
yes, but why would you want to
Could you do a video about biltong please?
You don’t use any butter or Pam when you bake it?
No. Oil will go rancid. It doesn't stick to the cookie sheet.
Holy broken molar, Batman! Those will break a tooth!!
Any suggestions on storage methods?
Depending on your climate, in dry locations a tin box, that keeps out mice and like. I made a batch about 6 years ago just to try it out, I stored it in zip lock bag and in cloth bag just trying out different ways. Both worked OK. If I was going to store longer term I'd probably store in wax paper in tin or sheet metal box in driest location possibly. Or even place in paper bags and use to fill up empty space in deep freezer.
Crumble hardtack, add peanut butter, or butter, or honey, and a drop of rum.
Blubber... it's better than you think...Alaskan prepper 🌶
Ik this is off topic but could u do a video on rope for prepping maybe different types of rope and they're uses seems like noone talks about what kind of rope u should prep besides paracord
that because paracord is the only prep rope
If you break up the hardtack into chunks and boil it with some beef or even jerky, you will end up with a beef and dumplings like mixture that's not too bad.