Wolf Brother’s Hardtack
Based on the Civil War Recipe:
Army Hardtack Recipe
Ingredients:
4 cups flour (preferably whole wheat)
4 teaspoons salt
Water (about 2 cups)
Pre-heat oven to 375° F
Makes about 10 pieces depending on how you size them.
Instructions
Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Add just enough water (less than two cups) so that the mixture will stick together, producing a dough that won’t stick to hands etc.
Mix the dough by hand.
Roll the dough out, shaping it roughly into a rectangle. What I did was to roll it into a cookie sheet that had about a 1/2 in lip all the way round.
I cut the dough into rectangles and used a 3 tine fork to punch holes in the tops. Kinda/sorta like what you see today with crackers.
Bake for 30 minutes. Turn each piece over and bake for another 30 minutes. The crackers should be slightly brown on both sides.
Chef’s Notes:
The fresh crackers were still somewhat soft. I left them out overnight and the next day checked them again. Still a bit soft.
So I stacked them in a toaster over, set the temp at 140 degrees and let them bake for about 4 hours.
I wound up with truly hardtack.
I divided them into eight Ziploc bags.
6 months later tried the first bag. Result was like you read about – Hard to bite, works better to sop liquids up.
1 year later – same condition.
2 years later – gave most of the bags to a Civil War re-enactor group – they loved them. Gave the recipe to one of the wives.
Another year later – tried the remaining bag. No change.
At all times these were stored on a shelf in a closet in my house. No real temperature extremes.
No one has suffered any ill effects.
I plan to try to make portable soup, pemmican, parched corn, and pinole.
Useful Recipe and Cooking Links:
Mrs. Light suggested bookmarking and printing reference copies of the resources at Food Storage Made Easy.
John F. mentioned a link to a lady’s site where she features 52 weekly recipes using dehydrated foods, with a complete list of ingredients, and recipes.
Do you have a favorite recipe that you have tested extensively? Then please e-mail it to us for posting. Thanks!