I found the recipe in a library book. It's not so bad... if you soak it in coffee. Really soak it.
(What?! Not "so bad"... if the alternative is starvation!)
Ingredients
- 4 cups whole wheat or all-purpose flour
- 3-4 teaspoons salt (for preservation NOT for flavor; can omit if you're not marching into battle)
- 1 1/2 - 2 c water
Equipment
- Large mixing bowl
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Nail or chopstick
- Sturdy mixing spoon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F.
- Mix the flour and salt together in bowl. Add just enough water (start with 1 1/2 cups and add more a little bit at a time) so that the dough will stick together. Knead dough 10-12 times.
- Roll the dough into rectangles using a rolling pin, then cut into squares about 3” x 3” and ½” thick.
- Press a pattern of four rows of four holes into each square using a nail or chopstick. Make sure to not punch through the dough. Turn the hardtack over and repeat on the other side.
- Place hardtack on ungreased cookie sheet (parchment optional) and bake for 30 minutes. Turn each piece over and bake for another 30 minutes.
Hardtack should be slightly brown on each side. The freshly cooked pieces are easily broken, but they will harden as they continue to dry out. If kept clean and dry, hardtack will last for years.
While hardtack was the ideal food for the solider on the go, it had several flaws. It lacked flavor, it molded when wet, and it was prone to insect infestation. Soldiers would dunk their hardtack in water or coffee or toss the biscuit onto the fire to scare out all the creepy crawlies before they could eat it.
Even once it was free of critters, eating hardtack was a specialized skill. If a soldier had plenty of time he might suck on a piece of hardtack as he marched, eating it in small pieces over time as his spit softened it. Some soldiers would use the butt of their gun to mash the hardtack into smaller pieces. (Katelyn Shaver)
English