Bake yer own Hardtack

Out here on the open seas of the late 1700s, we don't have refrigerators, coolers, Tupperware, plastic wrap, or even aluminum cans to preserve our food. The best we can do is wrap it up in cloth, hide it in a sealed wooden barrel, and stick that in the darkest recesses of the ship. We then hope it will provide enough protection from sea water, rodents, and weevils getting into our goods. It tends to work for a little while, at least.

This piece probably tastes the same

today as when it was only 1 day old!

Our daily meal is a bread called hardtack. Some call them sea biscuits. In either case, it's the same thing: a very dry, very hard, very thick cracker. We eat them each and every day. It's best to dunk them in water, grog, or soup to soften them up before biting. Your teeth will be grateful you did! The good thing is that they last for months, as long as they stay dry. The bad thing is that the weevils get into them anyway. One way to deal with those buggers is to bang your hard tack against the rail to shake them out. Or you could dunk it first, let the weevils float to the top of your drink, and then skim them off. I've seen more than a few sailors do neither and eat'em as they are. Yuck! I try not to look.

Below is a simple recipe for making hard tack for yourself. Eat them with sailor's water or grog and you've got a complete pirate meal!

Privateer Grade Hardtack -- Makes about 9 pieces.
This is a modified version of the Army Hardtack Recipe found at http://kenanderson.net/hardtack/recipes.html.
Ingredients:

• 4 cups flour (preferably whole wheat)
• 4 teaspoons salt
• Water (about 2 cups)
• Pre-heat oven to 375° F

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix the salt in with the flour.
2. Add just enough water to the flour (less than two cups) so that the mixture will stick together, producing a dough that won’t stick to hands, rolling pin or pan. Mix the dough by hand.
3. Roll the dough out, shaping it roughly into a rectangle.
4. Cut the dough into squares about 3 x 3 inches and ½ inch thick.
5. After cutting the squares, press a pattern of four rows of four holes into each square, using a pick or other sharp object. Do not punch through the dough. The appearance you want is similar to that of a modern saltine cracker. Turn each square over and do the same thing to the other side.
6. Place the squares on an ungreased cookie sheet in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Turn each piece over and bake for another 30 minutes. The crackers should be slightly brown on both sides. (Some recipes also recommend a second baking at 250° F to thoroughly dry out the bread.) Let cool in the oven.
7. The fresh crackers are easily broken but as they dry, they harden and assume the consistency of fired brick.

They do taste best fresh from the oven, but that's a quick thrill. You really have to wait and eat them after 1 week or 2 weeks or even 1 month to get a real feel for our lot! Do let us know what you think, or if you have any ideas on how to improve the recipe.