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.