Recipe Hard Tack

Via:How to Make Hardtack: An Inexpensive and Long-Lasting Survival Food saved from Preparing for shtf Knowledge is the key to survival when the shtf!
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my mother use to make hard tack and use it like crackers

 

Crush it into a powder and swallow, or make it into a porridge by adding some milk and sugar/honey; or use it to thicken soups, casseroles and stews. Soften it by dunking in beverages and soups before biting.....or take out your false teeth and gum the HT biscuits into submission!

 

@chelloveck Good catch Chello! This is what one could do with flour that is getting old. Good idea and time tested through the ages!

 

I made some hardtack a few years ago and found something interesting about storing it. The hardtack stored in a paper bag (like a brown lunch bag) lasted a long time and did not rot. Hardtack stored in a glass jar lasted just a few months (I don't have an exact time that I found it covered with mold). Based on prior experience for food storage, this was a big surprise for me - maybe someone has some input or ideas why...

 

Some recipes say to add no salt as it may pull moisture into the cracker thereby causing the hardtack to rot quickly. I am wondering how they stored hardtack on old sailing ships during long voyages since ziplock bags and Tupperware were still a few years away. Anyone know?

 

Stored in sealed biscuit tins, or in wooden barrels I presume.

Hardtack - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

My grand mother made a cracker type bread in the fall, about 10 in in dia with a hole in the middle and they kept them in the attic on a pole. Used them like crackers or like bread. Made of flour and a little salt and I don't remember any shortening. It kept all winter. They also made lefse which looks similar but is soft and made with potatoes, flour and shortening. Had a big stack of them on the cold porch and ate it with sugar or sour cream or butter and home made jam. It also seemed to keep a long time as we always ate it before it spoiled. Oatmeal, cream of wheat, pearled barley, rice, steel cut oats with meat made into a kind of semi sausage, left over potatoes fried, etc were our breakfast foods and none came out of a box ready to eat. All kept well, were cheap, and took very little storage space.
Attic was unheated, usually just above freezing, and dry. She kept hams, sausages, apples wrapped in papers in a barrel, flat bread, flour, oatmeal, rice, and a lot of other things there in the winter while it was cold, room was under north side of house roof, took them all out when it got warm.

 

a donut shaped cracker? what an intriguing way to store wheat

 

Interesting, if you look up hard tack on the net, you come with listings that make versions of it an almost world wide food. For the last few thousand some form of it has been the staple of the military diet as well as most long distance travelers. Forgot that matzo's with all of their forms and recipes are actually a form of hard tack. Several near universal foods, basic rice, hard tack,"soft tack" such as tortillas, neem bread, pockets, lavaish, etc, oatmeal, bean dishes, fermented juices, wine or vinegar, etc