Hardtack, an old century prep food for long travels and long storage. Its also a great, lightweight, camping food. Hardtack is also gaining popularity among preppers and survivalists. The tough There is an understanding that if it all goes bad, these things will be around. Though they may not be the most delicious option. Thus, hardtack is becoming part of an extensive inventory of long-term food storage.
The brilliant thing about hard tacks is that they are little more than water, flour, and salt. This is why they last an eternity. The desire to add things for flavor and texture is alluring, but remember, the true purpose of this food is to last forever. The addition of things like fats, which can go rancid, will shorten the lifespan of this food.
I will provide you with a basic recipe for creating these biscuits. What is more important, however, is that you understand the basic ratio. Many people think cooking is about recipes, but really, knowing a ratio is much more powerful than a recipe because it can be manipulated easily. The ratio for hardtack is 3:1 flour to water. This can be 3 cups of flour to 1 cup of water or 31 bs. to lib. or 3 tons to 1 ton. Take this ratio and apply it any way you see fit.
Ingredients
Tools
Preheat the oven to 350f.
Add your flour to the large mixing bowl, and stir it around a bit.
Add the salt to your bowl next, and make sure that it gets well integrated into the mix.
Once the mix gets stodgy and doughy, you can turn it out onto a floured table. This mass will still be pretty sticky, and it will take some additional flour and elbow grease to make it smooth.
Begin to work the dough by poking at it with your finger tips and folding it over itself. Add flour until it stops sticking to the table and your hands. The dough will get smooth and soft after just a couple minutes.
Once your dough has come together, you can begin to round it out. You want smooth dough that will not stick to your rolling pin or whatever else you use to shape your hardtack.
A good method for shaping your hardtack is to break your dough down into smaller portions. These portions will cook quicker and can be more easily divided among others should the need arise.
Utilize a common household nail to poke holes into the hard tack. This allows the center of your biscuit to dry out quicker and more thoroughly in the oven. For a nice-sized square hardtack, poke 16 holes straight through the dough.
Lay your hardtack out, and give them enough space to bake evenly. Place them in the oven for 30 minutes.
This 30-minute cook time is merely the first of at least two bakes these hard biscuits will go through. This process, although time consuming, will ensure that there is no remaining moisture in your hardtack. Any moisture becomes the complete enemy of this process of shelf stability. Some old recipes call for three and even four times in the oven.
Once your first 30 minutes is over, pull out the hardtack and allow them to cool. The steam will come out of them, and they will get pretty hard, although they will not be hard or dry enough to store at this point. After having cooled them for about 20 minutes, place them back in the oven. This time set your timer for one hour.
Following the last hour of baking, turn your oven off. DO NOT REMOVE THE HARDTACK. Instead, leave your biscuits in the turned-off oven. Let the heat slowly drop in the oven while your biscuits slowly dry even further. This is a great practice for really zapping any remaining moisture left inside.
At this point, you have created some decent shelf-stable hardtack. Now, unlike most foods you spend time making from scratch. Remember, if you decide to flavor them up with butter or herbs, this will simply add ingredients that will drastically shorten the shelf life of your hardtack. Keep it simple, and they will last forever.
