Welcome To Pilgrims and Pioneers!

After many years of researching my family geneaology I have been lucky enough to discover actual information about my relatives that lived in the Pilgrim Era and the Pioneer Era- while many people also have realtives from those eras- many do not know their names or where they lived- actually seeing the proof in print makes you much more aware of who they really were.
After discovering these relatives it of course made me curious to learn more about the eras that they lived in and what their lives were like as, the history I learned in grade school had long since been forgotten.
I decided to start this blog for others who are also interested in these eras.
Some of the information here will be actual facts about my realtives and some will be information about the eras in general that I have found on the web.
I hope you will enjoy traveling back in time with me!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Recipe for Hardtack

In the Civil War the main staple in the soldier's diet was hardtack- it was usually made small enough to fit in the soldier's pocket.
I have found a recipe for hardtack that is used by Civil War reenactment participants.
I have not had time to try it yet but if you would like to try your hand at it here is the recipe:
4 cups flour
2 cups water
4 teaspoons salt
Combine water, with the 4 cups of flour and 4 teaspoons of salt. Gradually adding the water will keep the mixture from becoming too sticky. Knead thoroughly. It should feel elastic-like when complete. If too sticky, add more flour.
Flour a surface for rolling out the mixture. Roll out into a rectangular shape until roughly 1/2 inch in thickness.
Cut the hardtack dough into squares. A pizza cutter works well for this. Hardtack came in various sizes, depending on the company that manufactured it, but it typically was small enough to fit into one's pockets.
Take a fork and make holes in the dough, creating a look similar to today's saltines. Flip each hardtack over and make holes on the other side as well.
Put the dough on a cookie sheet. Do not grease the cookie sheet. Bake the hardtack for 30 minutes, flip and cook for another half an hour.
I am sure that either white or whole wheat flour will work equally as well.
It does not sound like you can make a mistake with these!
P. S. With any luck I will have some pics from the Civil War re-enactment posted on the blog with in the next few days!

4 comments:

~SkullBlossom~ said...

Oh my...It almost sounds like "cram" from Lord of the Rings -- which must have been based on hardtack and those biscuits sailors ate -- you know, it might be good to make some of these in preparation for winter storms when the power goes out and you need something that will stick to your ribs!!!

Debra said...

Hard tack has such a long history- I'll bet it would stick to your ribs_ not sure how tasty they are though!

Karen said...

This reminds me of my Grandpa! He used to love hardtack! Thanks for the recipe! Karen

Debra said...

You are welcome! if you make some let me know how it turns out!

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