I bet you’ve heard of hardtack. It’s a staple in the prepping community. But what exactly is it? Why should you make it?
What is hardtack?
Hardtack is a hard bread made from flour. It’s even stiffer than biscotti. Perhaps, It’s made with a couple of ingredients, flour, water, and optional salt. It is easy to make and accessible to the majority of people.
Hardtack was extensively consumed in military, long sea voyages, and land migrations. It was a common ration item from the 17th century till the early 20th century.
Do you have flour? Do you have water? Bam! You can make hardtack because even the salt can be omitted.
Hardtack was even pounded to use as a thickener in New England clam chowder in the 1700s. A song was created about hardtack around the civil war era because of how unappealing it was.
The original hardtack of simple flour and water was adopted by the prepper community because of its long shelf life.
Since the unappealing days, people have taken it upon themselves to transform it and make it more savory by adding honey, nuts, butter, fruit, and other items. While those ingredients make it more edible, it doesn’t make it traditional hardtack.
Why should you make hardtack?
It’s a non-perishable bread/biscuit that last years without rotting. It’s great to have around an already made food item as you can simply grab and eat it.
I encourage everyone who wants to eat it to first soak it in something before softening it up. It’s almost tooth-shatteringly hard. You can drench it in coffee, tea, soup, or anything else that fits.
Hardtack vs Pemmican
Many people think that hardtack and pemmican are the two names of the same thing. But the only thing that is common between these two is that they both are advanced prepared survival foods that last long enough. These are great sources of appetite satisfaction for sailors, hunters, and soldiers who remain cut off from basic needs for some time.
For instance, hardtack can be considered a modern cracker, while the pemmican can be regarded as the advanced beef jerky.
Here’s how to make hardtack
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2-3/4 cup water
1 tsp salt (optional)
Instructions:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 250. Then, pour 2 cups of flour into a bowl. If you decide to add salt, do it now and mix it.
Step 2: Begin to pour small quantities of water at a time. Avoid pouring in all of the water at the same time. Mix the flour with the water well before adding more water.
You can mix it with your hands, it’ll combine the ingredients better than a spoon. It should begin to come together nicely.
Knead it into the bowl to combine the flour and water. Use about 3/4-ish of water, but don’t add too much. The dough should not be sticky. If you do add too much water and it’s too ‘wet’, just add a tiny bit more flour to get it back to the proper consistency.
Step 3: Now, roll the dough out to about 1/3 inch thick. The thickness doesn’t matter too much. It should be an average between thick and thin.
Step 4: Once rolled out, cut up into semi-even squares. Size doesn’t matter and it’s ok because it’s supposed to be dry and hard anyway.
Step 5: Take the end of a knife or a chopstick or something similar and begin to stab a few indentations into each piece.
Step 6: Place them onto a baking sheet and bake for 4 hours. Flip them at 2 hours.
After baking, they should be hard as a rock. Feel free to try a bite, though be cautious of your teeth. Make sure to soak first in soup or coffee, or tea.
Store them in a mylar bag with an oxygen absorber. However, It can also be stored in a vacuum-sealed bag. I’ve kept it in a Ziploc bag for two years, and it was fine. But, do store it properly, like in a mylar bag or vacuum-sealed bag.
How to Tell if the Hardtack Has Gone Bad?
Heat and moisture can make your hardtack turn bad. However, if you have carefully sealed the jar of hardtack then it can last decades. Even there’s a guy who claimed that he had eaten 153-year-old hardtack.
To detect the condition of the hardtack, you need to grab one and see if it is hard or soft. If it has gone soft, then it would not be suitable for eating as the moisture has already attacked it.
