Gonna make me some hardtack!

[13_CBS]

My first adventure into baking!

I've found a few recipes online for hardtack, but it's still my first time ever baking with flour. I'll be cooking in my dorm's kitchen that happens to have an oven.

Is there anything I should expect or otherwise prepare for? And for those who have made hardtack before, is it possible to bake them into cigar-shaped sticks? How well does it work?

[Lemur]

Hardtack... that's a new one. I've never baked things other than confections (cookies, brownies, pie) myself, but I'd have to imagine that you could shape something as simple as hardtack into a cigar shape. Note that the part that touches the pan will probably flatten out some, so don't expect it to come out as a perfectly rounded cigar.

Also since the shape will presumably be narrower than your original recipe calls for, the way it bakes will probably be changed slightly. Namely in that it probably won't take as long to bake. Check the progress about 10 minutes earlier and 5 minutes earlier than the minimum baking time (this is actually a good idea even if you're not experimenting in baking) to make sure it's not browning too fast. In general, mixing the ingredients for baking is fairly simple, what will make or break you is how attentive you are to the material once it's in the oven, so periodically checking the progress isn't a bad idea, especially considering you're new at this.

If your recipe turns out to have a large yield (although I can't imagine that anyone these days really needs a lot of hardtack), you might want to try putting only one tray in at a time to get a feel for how bakes. Although googling "hardtack" suggests it has a fairly long baking time, so your schedule or patience may not find that feasible. On the bright side, it's not like you're working with any fancy ingredients (and from what I hear, the end product isn't exactly a delicacy), so you don't have to worry about getting things perfect.

[Fri]

I love to cook pastries, but never made a hardtack myself.

can you really fail at making hardtack? It's that travel biscuit right? Which with some modifying, you can use it as a last resort weapon as much as a last resort food?

[Ravens_cry]

I love to cook pastries, but never made a hardtack myself.

can you really fail at making hardtack? It's that travel biscuit right? Which with some modifying, you can use it as a last resort weapon as much as a last resort food?
"Remember it's not just a roll, it's a military secret" -Galley Chef, Story Keepers

[Poison_Fish]

Actually, I've found hardtack breaks down very nicely if your going to make a soup. It can provide some substance to a light vegi soup.

In terms of baking... baking happens to be my worst skill at cooking. I'm much more a stew/roasting/broiling/stir fry person myself.

Though, I do love making pumpkin chiffon pie.

[Mauve Shirt]

My roomie's made hardtack before, she says it's one of the easiest things to bake and it's good with jam.
I can bake anything, as long as it has a recipe, but I'm safer handing off the baking to my sister.

[purple gelatinous cube o' Doom]

I'm curious as to why you'd make hardtack at all, let alone your first experience in baking. Hardtack is exactly what it sounds like. It's hard, and tastes like tack.

[doliest]

It's just flower,salt, and water, what's so difficult? Also, don't eat it, stuff is sickening by itself.

[RTGoodman]

It shouldn't be hard at all, if you find the recipe and all that. The Maritime Studies grad students at my alma mater have parties ever so often where they make 17th-18th century-era sailor-type foods, including hardtack, and though I missed it last year they said it wasn't that hard to make most of the stuff, hard-tack included.

[13_CBS]

Well, I've finished baking the first batch. I experimented with a few shapes:

1) The standard, 3x3 inch, .25 inch thick piece. This one turned out fairly nicely, though I broke it in half in the middle of baking to check how well it was drying out. A smaller version didn't turn out so well: though I used non-rising flour, the dough puffed up during baking. Maybe I didn't poke the holes in the dough well enough?

2) Finger-shaped tube-like things. They turned out nicely, I think, though I'm not sure how well their centers are baked.

3) Orbs. They turned out fairly well, too, though I was hoping for an unmarred, uncracked surface. Oh well.

4) Blobs. They baked fairly well.

I've let them sit out to dry, so tomorrow I'll give them a taste.

[RandomLogic]

I'd vote you make biscuits. Biscuits have butter in them, which makes them infinitely better than hardtack. ;)

[Vella_Malachite]

Wow. I really want to try hardtack sometime. Can you PM me a recipe, please?

[golentan]

Wow. I really want to try hardtack sometime. Can you PM me a recipe, please?

I assure you, no matter how much you believe yourself to desire hardtack, you are mistaken. Go make yourself some drop biscuits instead. I will gladly send you the recipe for that, but friends don't let friends eat hardtack.

Sorry, irresistible with that setup. Here is the recipe I learned for hardtack:

For 10 pieces: 4 cups whole wheat flower, 4 teaspoons salt, water.

Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Add just enough water to make it stick together (Less than two cups). Roll the resulting dough and shape it into a rectangle, then cut it into 10 pieces 3x3x1/2 inches each. Place on an ungreased sheet and bake at 375 for thirty minutes, then flip them over and bake another 30 minutes. They should be light brown on both sides when done.

If you don't eat them fresh, be sure you have something to drink when you chow down. They get really hard really fast, and after a couple hours you have to soak them if you don't want to loose a tooth. :smallwink:

[Totally Guy]

I have no idea what hardtack is but rather than check the almighty wiki I think it might be be more fun just to mix up those ingredients and see what I get.

I'm confused now, it must be an American word but then again the word biscuit keeps cropping up and I didn't think that word was used over there.

[golentan]

Actually, I'm pretty sure hardtack originated in europe, as rations for military units and ships, because of its density (lack of yeast means high calories for volume) and extreme shelf life (mold is far too intelligent to try and eat it.)

[13_CBS]

Well! I finished baking the hardtacks on Saturday and finished eating them on Sunday. Didn't make much, but they weren't too bad.

About half of them turned out the way they were supposed to, I think. Said pieces were almost impossible to bite through with incisors, but could be chewed with canines and molars. They didn't taste too bad, either, like saltine crackers without the salt.

Hardtack isn't some culinary heresy that must never be eaten, you know. :smallwink: I'm going to make myself another batch later on.

[Telonius]

I have no idea what hardtack is but rather than check the almighty wiki I think it might be be more fun just to mix up those ingredients and see what I get.

I'm confused now, it must be an American word but then again the word biscuit keeps cropping up and I didn't think that word was used over there.

We do use the word biscuit, just not for the same things that it's used for in the UK. For human food, it's about muffin-sized, is a small baking powder-ish bready cake, and is made with bisquick, we'll call it a biscuit. "Dog biscuits" are just about any kind of crumbly dog treat.

[Mando Knight]

I'm confused now, it must be an American word but then again the word biscuit keeps cropping up and I didn't think that word was used over there.

Biscuit is used here in the States to refer to a bread-like object made with baking soda or powder instead of yeast, while the UK usage of "biscuit" has been shoved into the US definition of "cookie."

It's similar to a scone or a fluffier, softer variation of hardtack--whichever description you like better. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biscuit) seems to know all about it.

Ack, 5-minute ninjas! (I tried to research my reply, and look what happened!)