# Anybody recognize "hardtack?"



## partndn (Jun 18, 2009)

I have a cookbook geared toward making stuff from the pantry storage we commonly have.
One recipe is for hardtack.
It sounds kind of like biscuits with oatmeal. You roll it out on a pan about 1/4-1/2" thick, score it good into squares, and bake.

It says it keeps "forever." Obviously not forever, but it sounds to be something a cowboy would have in his pack.. or a hiker, etc. No fridge needed or cooking required to get some carbs, fiber, a little protein.

Anyone ever heard of it? made it? how was it?


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## rightathome (Feb 10, 2009)

Yes, I've heard of it. Our local "trading post" type place carries bits of it as a novelty mostly. Theirs is just flour, salt and water, I guess how it was made back in the old days... hard, really not appetizing at all. I'm thinking I have a lot more sympathy for cowboys or soldiers back in the day if they had to rely on hardtack for a staple of their diet! But if it was that or nothing, lol, I'd take it. Found this with a quick search http://www.geocities.com/pentagon/barracks/1369/recipes.html


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## naturelover (Jun 6, 2006)

Hardtack is as old as the hills. It's been a subsistence staple of sailors and soldiers for hundreds of years. I've had it but didn't like it, it needs livening up a bit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardtack


.


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## ronron (Feb 4, 2009)

My aunt always kept hard tack in the bread drawer she loved the stuff....she would just break off some and put jam on it and eat it for a treat...


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

Hardtack has been around for at least 100 years or longer. The soldiers carried it in the WBTS. It's so hard you can't eat it, you have to moisten it to soften it up. They used it to cook with (making a mush to eat), or to dunk in drinks kind of like an oreo in milk. You might be able to eat it when it's fresh and warm, but once it's fully dried, it hardens up like a brick. 

Yes, it keeps almost forever, at least for several years, unless it gets wet. 

Would you mind sharing the recipe in your book. The recipe I have is from the early 1800's. I'm wondering if it's been upgraded to use modern ingredients and if it has, then it might not keep as well as the original, and it might not be as hard.

It's more of a thick cracker than a biscuit. It even has dents in it like a cracker.

A better recipe for bread would be to bake up some "survival bread" to store. Here's a recipe for it. 



> Survival Bread
> 
> 2 cups oats
> 2 1/2 c. powdered milk
> ...


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## MSMH (Sep 8, 2009)

Saw this recipe for *hardtack* in *Backwoods Home Magazine*, but I have not tried it because I cannot eat wheat. 

[FONT=COMIC SANS MS,ARIAL]*Traditional trail foods*[/FONT] 
[FONT=COMIC SANS MS,ARIAL]*Transportable calories*[/FONT] 

[FONT=COMIC SANS MS,ARIAL]*By Brad Rohdenburg*[/FONT]

from: http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/rohdenburg81a.html

*Hardtack *

Essentially a very hard cracker, hardtack was the standard traveling fare for soldiers, sailors, and pioneers up through WWI. Originally made from only salt, flour, and a little water, it was universally despised. It was traditionally either dipped in coffee, or soaked in hot water and then fried in bacon drippings. This updated version is far more healthy and tasty, and just as easy to store and transport. 
2 cups fresh whole wheat flour (Best if you grind it yourselfâwheat berries lose nutritional value rapidly once ground.) 
2 cups fresh corn meal (Again, best if you grind it yourself right before baking.) 
1/2 cup wheat germ 
1/2 cup rolled oats 
1 Tbsp. brown sugar 
1 Tbsp. salt 
13/4 cups water 
Mix dry ingredients thoroughly. Add water. Knead until moistened but not sticky. Roll 1/4 inch thick. Cut into 3-inch squares or rounds. Place on ungreased cookie sheets. Score with a knife to facilitate breaking later. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Can be stored indefinitely in an airtight container. 


Other long-lasting food *recipes* are included in this same article at *Backwoods Home Magazine*. I plan to try the *jerky* recipe.


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## beaglebiz (Aug 5, 2008)

My Grandma (northeast PA, daughter of german/irish immigrants born in 1906) called hard candy "hard tack" (like butterscotch disc, or the assorted hard Christmas candies in a tin). 
I know about Ship's Biscuit, so I suppose this is similar.


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## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

partndn said:


> I have a cookbook geared toward making stuff from the pantry storage we commonly have.
> One recipe is for hardtack.
> It sounds kind of like biscuits with oatmeal. You roll it out on a pan about 1/4-1/2" thick, score it good into squares, and bake.
> 
> ...


Over the past 20 years, I have found numerous recipes for Hardtack. We have made most of them.

It can last a long time.

One recipe that was used by the British Royal Navy during the 1400s-1900s was commonly stolen and folks used them for roofing shingles. That tells you how well they 'last'.


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## naturelover (Jun 6, 2006)

> folks used them for roofing shingles. That tells you how well they 'last'.


Too funny. And that reminds me that I still have some old hardtack Christmas tree ornaments that I made 50 years ago.


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

ET1 SS said:


> One recipe that was used by the British Royal Navy during the 1400s-1900s was commonly stolen and folks used them for roofing shingles. That tells you how well they 'last'.


Roofing shingles? Seems like they'd get mushy and moldy in wet weather. I wonder how many people got upset when their roof starting smelling bad, or falling apart during the rainy season?


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## partndn (Jun 18, 2009)

Roofin shingles! :rotfl:
Spinner thank you for the bread recipe. I have never tried that.
MSMH - anything fried in bacon drippings can't be completely bad. 

So I'll be honest. I just sort of blindly chose this book one day recently while at a discount store that has a large selection, and I have a problem with buying books, especially food ones.

It's called Pantry Cooking
Quick and Easy Food Storage Recipes
by Laura Robins

Now that I look at it, I think I've seen her name mentioned about a book somewhere else on another thread.. but maybe not. ??

The recipe goes...
oh lordy, gotta go get my glasses

1/3c. dry milk, + 1 1/4c warm water, blended
3 cups quick oatmeal
1 cup oat bran
3/4c sugar
1 1/2c whole wheat flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Whisk the milk and water. Soak the oatmeal and bran in the milk for 8 hours. Add the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix and form dough. Add milk if too dry. Roll out until less than 1/2 inch thick. Prick all over with fork. Cut in small squares with pizza cutter or knife. Bake 10-15 min at 400. Done when browned to light tan color. Cool and package in a cloth bag so it can dry out and last forever. Makes 48 two inch squares.

ick.. I thought it sounded less than tasty. But like most said, I could eat it if I needed to.


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## partndn (Jun 18, 2009)

Now I'm curious if this book is something all y'all pro's already had. If so, just recognize I'm a ding dong. 

It seems to be pretty handy. Lots of recipes for stuff using the dried storage items. It's nice to have the recipe in front of you that specifically says a Tbsp dried onion, or a cup of bean flakes, etc. instead of figuring that from a traditional recipe, and how much water content difference will effect, and so on.

I'm a newbie at most of this, so it would be a help.
I don't have a dehydrator. It's a hope though.. on my someday list..


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

partndn, It sounds like you found a great book, now I'll have to look for a copy of it. 

You have a dehydrator, you just haven't recognized it as such, yet. I dehydrate fruits and veggies in my oven. I made my trays by sewing some cheesecloth into "pillowcases" that fit real tight over jelly roll pans. The cheesecloth keeps the food suspended above the pans so the heated air circulates on all sides. Cut the fruits and veggies to about 1/8 to 1/4 inch slices, then lay them on the cloth making sure the edges don't touch. Set the oven on the lowest temp (mine is digital so I set it for 180Â° for fruits & veggies), leave the door ajar as if you were broiling, set a fan in the room to circulate the air. I usually put things in at night and they dry while I sleep. Next morning they are ready to pull out, cool to room temp, and package. The trays can also be used inside a screen cage outside. The cheesecloth "pillowcases" can be removed to wash them when I'm done drying one batch or a few if I do multiple batches one right after the other. 

Thanks for posting the recipe.


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## Guest (Oct 2, 2009)

Real hardtack is flour and water and if you insist a little salt. Nothing else.

Make it up into a stiff dough. Roll it between a quarter to a half-inch thick. Cut into rectangles of a convenient size. Ever half-inch to inch or so poke holes in it with a fork so that moisture can escape in the baking.

Bake on a lightly greased sheet at 350 until golden brown. Then turn the heat down to 200 and continue baking until they are as hard as sheet iron. Let cool then store in an air tight container. Shelf life is approximately that of the container they are stored in.

To eat - crumble up into whatever soup, stew, or broth you are able to put together. If you can't do any better then soak in water until soft.

Combine with jerky, pemmican, pinole' (parched corn) and you'll be as well equipped as many of the explorers, adventurers, and soldiers of the early nineteenth century.

Subsist on this stuff for a mere three days while consuming nothing else but water and you'll develop a new appreciation for all of the many developments in trail foods and military rations that have occurred over the last hundred years.

.....Alan.


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

I don't think I've ever had it. If I did, I may have just thought it was a really bad biscuit. 

Is that what they refer to in old books as "Old Weevil's Wedding Cake"?


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## ET1 SS (Oct 22, 2005)

A.T. Hagan said:


> Real hardtack is flour and water and if you insist a little salt. Nothing else.
> 
> Make it up into a stiff dough. Roll it between a quarter to a half-inch thick. Cut into rectangles of a convenient size. Ever half-inch to inch or so poke holes in it with a fork so that moisture can escape in the baking.
> 
> ...


I agree.





> ... Combine with jerky, pemmican, pinole' (parched corn) and you'll be as well equipped as many of the explorers, adventurers, and soldiers of the early nineteenth century.


If I recall correctly. 'Pemmican' is actually a mixture of berries, nuts, tubers and edible barks ground up together and mixed with lard, then sealed with an outer layer of lard.

The story is: one of the Antarctic expeditions became a disaster because they were in the habit of buying pemmican from Native American tribes, and assumed that all Native Americans knew how to safely make Pemmican. They bought a large quantity from someone who was not entirely familiar with making it, and on the voyage the pemmican spoiled. The expedition discovered the spoilage when they got off the ship and decided that it must still be okay, since a Native American had sold it to them. They began their hike, eating the pemmican. They died.


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## brosil (Dec 15, 2003)

I make hard tack with whole wheat flour and it's good. My wife likes to keep some in the car to munch on. Remember to bake it twice, once to set and again after it cools to drive out the rest of the water.


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## Dutch 106 (Feb 12, 2008)

Hi Guys,
In the cook book for the Patrick O'brian, Maturin _Aubrey sea stories series. I belive its called "lobsouce and hardtack" they cover the correct way to make hardtack. Sorry I cannot lay my hands on it just now (move a year ago and still havn't organised my library) Which is pretty close to what A.T. was saying other than you need to raise the gluten in the flour. Which they did by beating the flour with somthing akin to a 2x4. The cook book authors recomend driving over the well wraped dough with a car numerous times?
I used a wooden sword. Then you are supposed to double bake them to completey dehydrate them. Then pack to keep dry.
They are a lot like pretzels without the salt. Kind off hard on your teeth, dry but as A.T.
said you crumble them in soups and chili to add body and protein.
Or knawed on when walking to give you something to do.
Keep them dry and cool they will last for many years.
Cheers,
Dutch


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## ailsaek (Feb 7, 2007)

Ah, yes. Otherwise known as matzo.  I eat that stuff every Passover.


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## Guest (Oct 2, 2009)

Ernie said:


> Is that what they refer to in old books as "Old Weevil's Wedding Cake"?


 The very same.


ET1 SS said:


> If I recall correctly. 'Pemmican' is actually a mixture of berries, nuts, tubers and edible barks ground up together and mixed with lard, then sealed with an outer layer of lard.


 Traditionally it was a mixture of dried meat that had been pounded or shredded, fat, and dried berries. I'm sure other kinds of foods were mixed in by various folks, but those were the three primary ingredients. It was all pounded together then stored in a tightly sewn piece of leather, rawhide, or cloth. Tasted about like what you would expect, but it gave a concentrated source of calories, protein, and usually enough vitamin C to keep ones teeth from falling out.

It stores a lot better up on your end of the continent. It's not such a good idea down here on my end, but there isn't quite the need for the concentrated calories outside of the snow belt.

Edited to add: You can still buy hardtack in the commercial market in some places or mail order it. Google "Ships Biscuit." That's it.

.....Alan.


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## ailsaek (Feb 7, 2007)

And you can buy matzo by the case pretty cheap after Passover, and it's not hard at all to find recipes that use it.


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

those WASA Rycrisp crackers are the hardtack idea. I love those but dang they are dry!


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## Mrs. Jo (Jun 5, 2007)

We make a crisp, or cracker with our sourdough desem dough that is just the flour, water and salt. Plus if you want a little oil on the top to make the salt stick to it. This also last forever and is easy to digest because it is fermented. You do have to roll it thin or it will be really hard to bite. The sourdough makes it really tasty...much better than regular hardtack/crackers made with flour.


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## halfpint (Jan 24, 2005)

We made hardtack when we were studying the Civil War. Kids tried to eat it without soaking it and thought they were going to break their teeth off. It was a common ration during the Civil war, and like others have said just flour, water and salt. It's not too bad in soup.

Dawn


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## WildernesFamily (Mar 11, 2006)

We made hardtack during our unit study of the Civil war (we homeschool.) The kids had great fun making them and they actually *like* hardtack and still make it on occasion. Crazy kiddos. LOL. They also crushed berries to use the juice for ink, which was apparently what the civil war soldiers used to write letters to home - most likely pokeweed berries.

Hardtack has a really interesting history.

_Hard Tack

Let us close our game of poker, take our tin cups in our hand
As we all stand by the cook's tent door
As dried monies of hard crackers are handed to each man.
O, hard tack, come again no more!

CHORUS: 'Tis the song, the sigh of the hungry:
"Hard tack, hard tack, come again no more."
Many days you have lingered upon our stomachs sore.
O, hard tack, come again no more!

'Tis a hungry, thirsty soldier who wears his life away
In torn clothes--his better days are o'er.
And he's sighing now for whiskey in a voice as dry as hay,
"O, hard tack, come again no more!"--CHORUS

'Tis the wail that is heard in camp both night and day,
'Tis the murmur that's mingled with each snore.
'Tis the sighing of the soul for spring chickens far away,
"O, hard tack, come again no more!"--CHORUS

But to all these cries and murmurs, there comes a sudden hush
As frail forms are fainting by the door,
For they feed us now on horse feed that the cooks call mush!
O, hard tack, come again once more!

'Tis the dying wail of the starving:
"O, hard tack, hard tack, come again once more!"
You were old and very wormy, but we pass your failings o'er.
O, hard tack, come again once more!_


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

I loved the stuff when I was in AK. Pilot Boy made crackers that'd last forever. Throw it in whatever glue stew I was making and it'd fill you up. A pat of butter or margarine and a glob of jam and I was in 7th Heaven.

I've seen places where I could order it... still make it up in Maine, I believe... or thereabouts. If shipping didn't make it a luxury good, I'd stock some.


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

I've never tried to make it myself. it's available at the grocery store. purity makes it. it was a staple in our home when i was growing up. i have bags of it in my preps also.we make a dish from it called brewis which we serve with fish.

i also have another, little softer one called" sweet bread" we use to take that in the woods with us and dip it in our tea. ~Georgia.


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## FrontPorch (Mar 27, 2008)

newfieannie said:


> I've never tried to make it myself. it's available at the grocery store. purity makes it. it was a staple in our home when i was growing up. i have bags of it in my preps also.we make a dish from it called brewis which we serve with fish.
> 
> i also have another, little softer one called" sweet bread" we use to take that in the woods with us and dip it in our tea. ~Georgia.


My Newfie hubby made me try it while visiting there. Nothing to write home about but if it's all you had I suppose it would taste pretty good. 

To be fair he hates our ham and beans. Some things you just have to grow up with to appreciate.


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## partndn (Jun 18, 2009)

I did ask my mom about hardtack. She remembers it being referred to, and her mom probably had made it.
I'm going to try both (with oatmeal, and without, as there are recipes here for both) just for curiosity.

Question for Mr. Hagan if he reads here - or any other experts. What happens to the "storability" length if you add shortening??

My church uses flour, water, salt, and shortening for communion pieces, and they keep a long time in the freezer.
I'm guessing the shortening reduces the ability to sit at various temps??


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## Guest (Oct 5, 2009)

Any fat that is added will decrease storage life compared to hardtack made without. In the freezer this would not be a problem. On the room temperature shelf it would be.

.....Alan.


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## vegascowgirl (Sep 19, 2004)

Spinner said:


> partndn, It sounds like you found a great book, now I'll have to look for a copy of it.
> 
> You have a dehydrator, you just haven't recognized it as such, yet. I dehydrate fruits and veggies in my oven. I made my trays by sewing some cheesecloth into "pillowcases" that fit real tight over jelly roll pans. The cheesecloth keeps the food suspended above the pans so the heated air circulates on all sides. Cut the fruits and veggies to about 1/8 to 1/4 inch slices, then lay them on the cloth making sure the edges don't touch. Set the oven on the lowest temp (mine is digital so I set it for 180Â° for fruits & veggies), leave the door ajar as if you were broiling, set a fan in the room to circulate the air. I usually put things in at night and they dry while I sleep. Next morning they are ready to pull out, cool to room temp, and package. The trays can also be used inside a screen cage outside. The cheesecloth "pillowcases" can be removed to wash them when I'm done drying one batch or a few if I do multiple batches one right after the other.
> 
> Thanks for posting the recipe.


You can also dry meats and some fruits/veggies by peircing or hanging on a toothpick or wood skewer and hanging the items from the existing oven racks. Jerky is especially easy this way, but make sure to place a pan or foil on a bottom rack to catch dripping juices...makes for easier oven clean up.


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## partndn (Jun 18, 2009)

Spinner and Vegascowgirl - 

These are great ideas. I didn't know. I do have a convection oven with the fan to circulate air, which I figured would be perfect.
Unfortunately, you can't crack the door without the fan turning off.
I may have to try leaving it shut (lowest temp is 175), or just doing the cracked open method without the fan.
I wish I had some good deer jerky about now. It's almost time!


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## PhilJohnson (Dec 24, 2006)

Interesting thread :goodjob: Never had hard tack but I like plain crackers so maybe I'll have to give it a try. My friend's mother down the road makes fry bread, which sounds sorta similar. I am a big fan of fry bread but I hear it makes you fat. 



ailsaek said:


> Ah, yes. Otherwise known as matzo.  I eat that stuff every Passover.


I got like three packages with six boxes a piece in them of matzos. They are very cheap at the bent and dent place. I usually spread some peanut butter or put cheese slices on them. If that is just like hardtack I don't know what everyone is complaining about I think it taste great


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## vegascowgirl (Sep 19, 2004)

I heard of this salad years ago from a guy that was into civil war reenactment. I only tried it once, but as I recall it was mighty tasty. This thread reminded me of it so I went searching for the recipe.
http://recipecircus.com/recipes/gijane/SALADandDRESSING/Gazpachi_Salad.html


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## MSMH (Sep 8, 2009)

PhilJohnson said:


> Interesting thread :goodjob: Never had hard tack but I like plain crackers so maybe I'll have to give it a try. My friend's mother down the road makes fry bread, which sounds sorta similar. I am a big fan of fry bread but I hear it makes you fat.
> 
> 
> I got like three packages with six boxes a piece in them of matzos. They are very cheap at the bent and dent place. I usually spread some peanut butter or put cheese slices on them. If that is just like hardtack I don't know what everyone is complaining about I think it taste great


Matzo is very thin so it is easy to bite through it and it "melts" in your mouth readily. Hardtack is much thicker/denser so it is hard to bite through and it also does not readily melt in your mouth. That is why it is called "*hard*tack." It's hard to eat.


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## Guest (Oct 6, 2009)

PhilJohnson said:


> I got like three packages with six boxes a piece in them of matzos. They are very cheap at the bent and dent place. I usually spread some peanut butter or put cheese slices on them. If that is just like hardtack I don't know what everyone is complaining about I think it taste great


 Well, of course, as an occasional snack with cheese or peanut butter on them they'd be just fine.

Now for the next three days eat them for every meal. You can even keep your cheese and peanut butter. At least until the cheese goes bad then you are down to just the peanut butter.

In three days I think you'd look a little differently on them.

Now imagine that what you have is matzos, jerky, and pemmican. For every meal for the next two weeks.

Things would look a lot different then.

Hardtack is what is is. A piece of hard bread. Little flavor, little nutrition, but it is calories and if kepty dry it will keep a good long time. It's also light and easy to carry so it made a natural trail food and for long ship voyages. So long as there is at least a little variety in the diet you could eat it forever. But all too often after the first week or two out the variety began to diminish sharply until you were down to just those things that stored the best and were the lightest to carry. On land it was often hardtack, jerky, pemmican, and pinole' (parched corn).

Gets pretty old after a while.

.....Alan.


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## PhilJohnson (Dec 24, 2006)

A.T. Hagan said:


> Well, of course, as an occasional snack with cheese or peanut butter on them they'd be just fine.
> 
> Now for the next three days eat them for every meal. You can even keep your cheese and peanut butter. At least until the cheese goes bad then you are down to just the peanut butter.
> 
> ...



Well I have already done that :nana:, well except for the pemmican and it was only for a one week not two. For a week all I ate was matzos, cheese, and apples I picked for free. I get free cheese from the dairy one of the very few perks I get working there. It was okay, I ain't gonna say I liked it as much at the end of the week compared to the beginning but I could have kept doing it for quite a while. The thing I got the most sick of eating was baked beans. I bought a massive 7 pound can of the stuff for 2 bucks. After a week straight of eating beans I was really sick of it, I crumbled in some matzos into that too. I still have another can of it but I haven't gotten over that first one yet and it has been over half a year. Chalk it up to food fatigue. 

Worst case of food fatigue was when I tried to eat off of 20 bucks for a month. Corn tortillas with black beans almost every single day for a month. My intestinal tract wasn't a happy camper...... I did make it though without spending more than 20 bucks but I lost close to 15 or 20 pounds doing it.


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## Prismseed (Sep 14, 2009)

I have never had hard tack but it does sound like something you could drop in soup for an impromptu dumpling of sorts.

If you are looking into tough foods I suggest Maryland hard beaten biscuits (Well that is what they are called around here, might just be hard beaten biscuits.) They are a lot of work (you litterally pound the dough for a while as I hear) but they last a few good weeks, longer I imagine if you can keep mold and fungus at bay. I love them, and they are -tough- some times people don't like them for the large chew workout. Once to prove a point I grabbed a bag of them, swung over hand and down to smack the bag on the table, not a single crack or dent in any of em.


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## newfieannie (Dec 24, 2006)

I never thought of that but they are really hard . i must see if they work in my slingshot. ~Georgia.


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

PhilJohnson said:


> Worst case of food fatigue was when I tried to eat off of 20 bucks for a month. Corn tortillas with black beans almost every single day for a month. My intestinal tract wasn't a happy camper...... I did make it though without spending more than 20 bucks but I lost close to 15 or 20 pounds doing it.


I once spent 5 days eating nothing but grasshoppers, beetles, and grubs. Their little shells are indigestible matter and you leave brightly colored trail in all of your impromptu latrines. Whatever weight I lost during that excursion I gained back immediately as soon as I had proper access to a chow hall.


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## PhilJohnson (Dec 24, 2006)

Ernie said:


> I once spent 5 days eating nothing but grasshoppers, beetles, and grubs. Their little shells are indigestible matter and you leave brightly colored trail in all of your impromptu latrines. Whatever weight I lost during that excursion I gained back immediately as soon as I had proper access to a chow hall.


Well I think you win the eating the grossest thing award :bow: Bugs, well let's say you would have to pay me to eat them. I have ate pine needles, bark, and cat tail roots but thus far my mouth is a no bug zone. I accidentally ate one of those dang Japanese beetles. Now that was gross.


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

Grubs aren't bad. They actually taste pretty good. Grasshoppers taste like ... well ... grass but you've got to pull the legs off. Crickets are a no go. Too awful to contemplate. 

I think Japanese beetles are designed to be foul-tasting. Even my chickens won't eat them.

In short, I don't really believe in "food fatigue". While I was out munching on grasshoppers my nights were haunted by dreams of every single thing I'd ever left on my plate because I didn't like it. Great mountains of overcooked broccoli. My Aunt Bessie's drier-than-the-Sahara Thanksgiving turkey, complete with stuffing that you could have built a house out of. All those green leafy things your mother put on your plate when you were a child and you refused to try came back to haunt me on about day eight when I still hadn't found any food. 

Right now we're on about day four of a beef stew I made. It was running out of chunks tonight so it got a bunch of lentil beans dropped into it. I think you really don't learn to appreciate something until you've eaten it for leftovers for four days in a row.


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## MSMH (Sep 8, 2009)

Ernie said:


> Grubs aren't bad. They actually taste pretty good. Grasshoppers taste like ... well ... grass but you've got to pull the legs off. Crickets are a no go. Too awful to contemplate.
> 
> I think Japanese beetles are designed to be foul-tasting. Even my chickens won't eat them.
> 
> ...


"Peas porridge in the pot, nine days old." 

http://www.mchd.com/pdf/soup.pdf


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## Guest (Oct 7, 2009)

My sister married a fella from the Maryland Eastern Shore and at one of the first family gatherings she brought him to he brought a bunch of Maryland delicacies, all of which were quite good.

EXCEPT for those 'beaten biscuits.' We thought they were a joke at first and maybe hurt his feelings a bit in that regard by accepting them as 'biscuits'. They are rather like hardtack and if steamed in a bowl of chowder may not be bad. But they're going to take some sort of moisturizing to even make them chewable much less palatable. They're kind of like large, very tough soup crackers.

Appetite fatigue is one of those things that people go around and around with. Some folks have enough of the do-or-die attitude it will never be a problem for them. Whether it's hardtack, plain rice, or corn meal mush they'll eat what they need and soldier on. Other folks do not and many of them tend to be folks who are chronically ill, the elderly, young children, and folks who have never had to mentally confront a bland, monotonous diet. For them it may push them over the line into malnutrition with all of the attendant problems that it brings. Crises and disasters are already high-stress situations in themselves. Compounding that stress by being forced into unpalatable diets will only make matters worse at the very time there is little to no ability to cope with the problems that arise. This might be enough to turn a situation that is rugged, but otherwise survivable into something darker.

But to each their own. We all have to accept responsibility for the decisions we did and did not make.

.....Alan.


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## insocal (May 15, 2005)

I think I will bake up some of the ww flour/cornmeal/oats/brown sugar version to put with my emergency provisions. Used to be able to buy pilot biscuits aka bickies at the local backpacker's store but not anymore. This recipe sounds better anyway.


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## Guest (Oct 9, 2009)

Deleted.

Completely the wrong thread.

.....Alan.


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## NostalgicGranny (Aug 22, 2007)

beaglebiz said:


> My Grandma (northeast PA, daughter of german/irish immigrants born in 1906) called hard candy "hard tack" (like butterscotch disc, or the assorted hard Christmas candies in a tin).
> I know about Ship's Biscuit, so I suppose this is similar.


Last week I got a Victorian Cookbook that had hardtack under candy - I had to do a double take. But, you are right there is a hard tack candy. My guess is it was a term used for anything that hard to chew.


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