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Hardtack

Hardtack is a long-term storage food made of just a few simple ingredients. The name comes from the British slang word for food: tack. So hard tack actually means ‘hard food’ – and you’ll discover that hardtack is a very, very hard food! You can’t just bite into a piece of hardtack. You need to soak it first. If not, you could break a tooth.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Servings: 0
Ingredients Equipment Method

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 tsps salt
  • 3/4 cup water
Hardtack Variation
  • 1/2 tbsp sugar or other sweetener
  • Dried nuts or dehydrated fruit to taste
  • Any additional seasonings such as cinammon or allspice

Equipment

  • Mixing bowl
  • 1 Rolling Pin
  • 1 Baking sheet

Method
 

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. In a large bowl, mix flour, salt, and water. The dough will be thick, but it should have a dry consistency. If it’s sticky, you can add a little extra flour at a time until it feels just right.
  3. If you’re doing a variation with added nuts, dehydrated fruits or seasonings –blend them into the dough.
  4. Sprinkle some extra flour on your countertop or workspace.
  5. Roll the dough until it is about ½ inch thick.
  6. Cut your dough into squares or whatever shape you like. You can make them very uniform, like saltines, or cut them with cookie cutters. I left mine slightly rugged-looking but tried to keep them close to the same size.
  7. Use a toothpick to poke holes in each square.
  8. Place your cut wafers on an ungreased cooking sheet.
  9. Bake for 30 minutes.
  10. Flip your wafers and bake for another 30 minutes.
  11. Once the wafers are evenly browned, you can turn off the oven and allow them to cool inside the oven. You can also remove them and allow them to cool on a cooling rack. The goal is to remove as much moisture content as possible without burning the cracker.
How to Use Hardtack
  1. Soaking
    You can’t just bite into a hardtack biscuit – you’ll risk breaking a tooth! You need to prepare them. The easiest way is to dunk it into your coffee, water, or milk, just like a cookie. It will probably take about ten minutes or more for your hardtack to soften up enough to be eaten, no matter what type of liquid you use. But eat it carefully in case it is still hard in the middle!
  2. Crumbling
    You can crush up your hard tack and use it like a coarse grain. Then, mix it with liquid, such as milk, and fry it to make a pancake-like food.
  3. Fried
    Once your hardtack has been softened, you can fry it in a skillet with butter, oil, or leftover grease in your skillet. It will cook up like a patty.
  4. Hardtack Pudding
    Crumble your hardtack into tiny bits, and mix it with a little butter, sugar, and milk (or other liquid). Once it is soft, you can stir it up into a pudding-like dessert.
  5. Stew
    Turn your soup into a stew by soaking your hardtack in your soup. Then, once it has softened and broken up, you can eat it like a stew.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!