Civil War Hardtack

[deputydon]

Hey Boys; Heres a web site for the ORIGINAL makers of "Hardtack"
for the Union Army during the Civil War!!! They are STILL in business!!! If you order now you'll have it in time for the spring shoot!!!!! I most likely ain't sharing!!!!

www.bentscookiefactory.com/hardtack.htm

ENJOY!!!!!!!

[bounce]

Aw come on DD you can share if you buy the hardtack crate. Bet they are a little cheaper than a $1 a cracker that way too? I'll just eat all the good camp cooking and you can have your wormy cracker to your self. Seems to me by passing 1863 eating would be a good thing anyway?

[twomoons]

5 Cups Flour (unbleached)
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 Tablespoon Salt
1-1 1/4 cups Water
Preheated Oven to 450
In a bowl, combine the ingredients to form a stiff, but not dry dough. The dough should be pliable, but not stick a lot to your hands.
Take this mound of dough, and flatten it out onto a greased cookee sheet (the ones with a small lip around the edge...like a real shallow pan...), and roll the dough into a flat sheet aprx. 1/2 inch thick.

Using a breadknife, divide the dough into 3x3 squares. taking a 10-penny nail, put a 3x3 matrix of holes into the surface of the dough, all the way thru, at even intervals (Village tinsmithing works sells a cutter that does all of this...works great!).

Bake in the oven for aprx 20 Min., till lightly browned. Take out and let cool.

[twomoons]

And I'll share mine weevils and all!

[deputydon]

twomoons said:

5 Cups Flour (unbleached)
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1 Tablespoon Salt
1-1 1/4 cups Water
Preheated Oven to 450
In a bowl, combine the ingredients to form a stiff, but not dry dough. The dough should be pliable, but not stick a lot to your hands.
Take this mound of dough, and flatten it out onto a greased cookee sheet (the ones with a small lip around the edge...like a real shallow pan...), and roll the dough into a flat sheet aprx. 1/2 inch thick.

Using a breadknife, divide the dough into 3x3 squares. taking a 10-penny nail, put a 3x3 matrix of holes into the surface of the dough, all the way thru, at even intervals (Village tinsmithing works sells a cutter that does all of this...works great!).

Bake in the oven for aprx 20 Min., till lightly browned. Take out and let cool.

Sorry Chief.....No baking powder and no salt in the Originals. Thats according to the Company that sold them to the UNION Army.....Now you REB'S I not sure about.........Course YOU LOST so who cares!!!!!!!

[Jack]

That recipe sounds a good bit more palateable than the original stuff.
Lots of soldiers wrote home about breaking up hardtack with a rifle butt, so as to be able to fry it in grease.
Considering that hardtack had to survive not only being shipped via railroad and wagons on unimproved roads, but had to survive being carried in a haversack for several days- maybe rainy days, too; hardtack had to be pretty rugged stuff.

[deputydon]

It should be here today!!!!!!

[twomoons]

Gee sorry my recipe came from the SOUTHERN supplier for the troops. As a mattter of fact i have several recipes and all differ a little, the oldest goes back to Commerce on the Praries 1847?? Personally give me a box of saltines any day!

[Jack]

My grandfather claimed to have been issued hardtack when he was on the Mexican border in 1917. He said you could drive nails with the hardtack theywere issued ;D
He also claimed it was left over from the Civil War
I have no idea if any of that is true....

[deputydon]

jack said:

My grandfather claimed to have been issued hardtack when he was on the Mexican border in 1917. He said you could drive nails with the hardtack theywere issued ;D
He also claimed it was left over from the Civil War
I have no idea if any of that is true....

They sure made things/stuff to last back in the old days!!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D Not like this disposable world of today.....

[bounce]

They still make things to last DD, you just have to pay the price, like a $1 a cracker. Now put your crackers on a shelf out in your tractor shed for 30 years and then start eating them. "Mmmmm-good" LOL. The REAL Stuff!!!!

[stumpjumper]

Back when I was in the Civil War re-enacting scene, we made our own hardtack. The recipe I used was supposed to be like the original. From the top of my head, I believe it was something like this.

4 cups flour
2 cups water
2 tbsp. greeze from salt pork or beacon
10 - 12 pinches of salt
bake for 30-35 min. on 400* if you are makin' it in the comfort of a modern cookin' utility, but in a poke & hope make-shift oven we fashioned in the field, you just have to keep an eye on it. We then cut the tooth chippers (Hardtack) into 3" to 4" squares. I would then punch a few holes into them. This made it easier to brake in half when you go to eat it. Flip them over & cook for another 30 min. or so.

Now I was on the good side, so was lucky. Being a member of Company B, 4th Virginia, Stonewall brigade, we also enjoyed a few other treats that was not all that common with the damn Yankees. We ate Johny cakes as well. Which came in handy for those of us not blessed with a full head of teeth ..