This thread is from 2020. It's been just at 36 months. I have ship's biscuit that has lasted since then. No mold. I put some in a plastic bag (which is cheating a bit), and some in a tin with a tight lid.
LD
LD
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Tasty tasty Hardtack?!
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David Y. Snellen
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I eat matzah ever year for 8 days and then make matzah pizza out of the leftovers till it is gone. I have made hardtack. They are not the same, although both are simple and kind of bland. Matzah will go rancid in a year or so, proper hard tack won't.
Just my thoughts and experience....
David
The KEY to making proper hardtack is to use whole, white wheat. Today it's called whole wheat pastry flour, because..., that was the wheat that they had back then. In fact if you decide to make regular bread for a reenactment, the wheat flour should be whole wheat pastry flour. Hard red, or red winter wheat didn't become the majority wheat of the United States until after the ACW. The current wheat has WAY too much protein, hence the super-hardness. (OH and add about 1/3 wheat bran to your hardtack dough when using the whole wheat pastry flour.)
Frankly... (imho-hbc
) using modern whole wheat flour to fashion hardtack is like using a candle lantern with a battery operated candle... sure it looks pretty close to what it should be, but it's not really what it should be. 
NOW IF you want biodegradable targets for a shooting match, make them out of hardtack using modern whole wheat flour, and use food coloring if you wish to make them stand out down range.
LD
The hardtack I put up on October 1 using whole wheat pastry flour and wheat bran is edible in small bites. Flavor is pretty bland, but I can sure imagine circumstances under which I would be very glad to have it.
I've read that hard tack goes well with pemmican. Has anyone tried it?
K.G.
32 Cal
I've a mind to make some of the hard tack with the softer flour. As a boy, my family sometimes went days with hardly nothing - or nothing at all - on the shelf or fridge and we had to make do as we could. Eating a raw onion or bread so stale that it is a rock will soon teach you an appetite that will appreciate even what appears to be the blandest thing. I still remember the taste of a ripe peach off the tree when biking home from work and won't forget it until I'm in the grave.
Appetites, at least in the USA, too often balk at the simple stuff. I wouldn't want anyone to be hungry, but it is a shame when we forget that simple foods have a dignity all on their own. Me and my father drinking coffee and eating beans out of a can was like a feast and a good experience to learn hard work and hard living.
Appetites, at least in the USA, too often balk at the simple stuff. I wouldn't want anyone to be hungry, but it is a shame when we forget that simple foods have a dignity all on their own. Me and my father drinking coffee and eating beans out of a can was like a feast and a good experience to learn hard work and hard living.
