What is hardtack and how was it used during the civil war

A few who succeeded by hook or by crook in saving up a portion of their sugar ration spread it upon hardtack. And so in various ways the ingenuity of the men was taxed to make this plainest and commonest, yet most serviceable of army food, to do duty in every conceivable combination. Historically, this was accomplished using ominous looking hand-held tools, but by the Civil War, there were mechanical tools that accomplished the task.

I used a plastic chopstick, but you could also use a pen cap. The entire premise of hardtack is that you add a bit of water to flour so that you can create a dough just pliable enough to shape, and then bake as much of the moisture out as possible.

It should be the consistency of a slightly dry play dough. If you had too much water by accident, just add a bit more flour until it comes back together. It benefits from a long baking in a low-temp oven. This recipe certainly sheds light on the monotonous palate afforded to soldiers in the Civil War. When properly baked, they are quite tough, which explains why soldiers would often soak them in coffee or soup prior to eating.

Another option at the time was to fry salt pork, soak the hardtack in cold water, and then fry the softened hardtack in the pork grease. Hardtack reminds me of a bread described in a novel I was recently reading.

Bakers made a particular kind of bread for survival, but it was completely inedible and contained rocks and sticks.

But such were the conditions — particularly for the blockaded South — that hardtack could be seen as a treat. Today, there is still an original supplier of the Union army that makes and sells hardtack , mostly to Civil War re-enactors. A gas explosion in damaged the building significantly, but re-opened later that year.

The company was sold in and, as of writing, the bakery has re-opened with a new website but the online shop is still closed. Preheat oven to degrees F. Combine flour with salt in a mixing bowl. Add water and mix with hands until the dough comes together. Place on baking sheet, and use a dowel see note above to make 16 evenly-spaced holes in each square. Bake for at least four hours, turning over once half-way through baking. Cool on a rack in a dry room. Care to share your recipe?

I may want to try this with my high schoolers! Thanks for sharing this challenge! Preheat oven to degrees F. Combine flour with salt in a mixing bowl. Add water and mix with hands until the dough comes together. Place on baking sheet, and use a dowel to make 16 evenly-spaced holes in each square. Bake for at least four hours, turning over once half-way through baking. Cool on a rack in a dry room. The key I found in making it is to forget the exact measurements and start with the above recipe and continue adding flour and water until the dough feels dry and stiff.

Good luck making hardtack and thanks for reading! Skip to content. Hardtack, previously referred to as hard bread, is a simple mixture of flour, water, and salt. Photo courtesy of author. Hardtack was primarily served to Union soldiers, as the Confederacy suffered a flour shortage during the War. Sources: Billings, John D. Most importantly especially for operational planning , it was cheap.

A form of hardtack was given as rations to Roman armies under the name bucellatum and during the 16th Century, British sailors could expect a daily ration of 1 gallon of beer and 1 lb. While hardtack was issued right up until World War I, the most recent and descriptive accounts of the food come from the American Civil War. One soldier recalled the sorry state of hardtack that he and his comrades were to consume:. Naturally this is something any student of war should taste. While there are commercial variants available , to really get the full effect one must head to the kitchen and whip up a batch of their own.

Flour and water ratios vary from source to source anywhere between to , and over time each recipe yields a similar product as the water evaporates from the biscuit and it hardens.

With that in mind, combining approaches gleaned from several sources, this seemed to be a reasonably authentic approach:. Combine in a bowl and work until it forms a stiff dough this may take a while. Bake at F for 30 mins, remove from oven, flip, bake for another 30 mins.

Remove from oven and let cool. The most striking thing about hardtack is its density. Unsurprisingly, it is hard. Really hard, but it still could be eaten without soaking although I tried to break a piece by hand the morning after and was unsuccessful. I must also mention that modern dental hygiene makes this easier to eat as well. The teeth or lack thereof of our forefathers would have been ill equipped for chewing through what is essentially a soft rock.