A recipe for hardtack

PensacolaWentworthAug2008Hardtack.jpg

Now you can eat like a 19th-century soldier or sailor (or cowboy!). Just mix up this recipe and then serve it with, respectively, coffee, rum, or beans. Ration of semi-rancid meat sold separately.

To make hardtack: Mix 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 cups whole wheat flour, and 1 tsp salt. Form it into a dough using 1.5 cups of water.

Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Then spread it into a pan, prick it all over on top with a fork, and bake it for 50 minutes at 325 degrees F.

NOM(?)

Hardtack recipe comes from The Food Journal of Lewis & Clark: Recipes for an Expedition by Mary Gunderson. The other recipes in this book are a lot more appetizing.

Image: Infrogmation of New Orleans, via CC license. Why Mr. T. T. Wentworth Jr. decided to preserve a piece of hardtack from 1862, I have no idea. People collect weird things.

Read more      

show full bio

Maggie Koerth-Baker

I do the Twitter, the Google+, and (to a much lesser extent) the Facebook.

Books
Before the Lights Go Out: Conquering the Energy Crisis Before It Conquers Us, my book about the future of energy in the United States, will be published April 10th.

Upcoming Appearances
April 2 at Skeptics in the Pub, Boston, Mass.— 7:00 pm at Tommy Doyle's in Harvard Square. Please RSVP.
April 4 at MIT: "Shedding Light, Online", a discussion about how blogging and a dynamic audience helped shape my book, Before the Lights Go Out—4:00 pm in Maseeh Hall. Please RSVP.
• April 6 at Carnegie Mellon University: More details to come
April 9-13 at University of Colorado, Boulder: 64th Annual Conference on World Affairs
April 10 at Colorado State University, Fort Collins: "Putting the Fun Back in Infrastructure"—3:30 pm in the Rocky Mountain Innosphere.
• April 19 at The Bakken Museum in Minneapolis: Book Launch Party! Come enjoy snacks, a presentation by me, and some fun with the Bakken's Leyden jar.
April 21 at Science Museum of Minnesota, St. Paul: Earth Day Tweetup event with Will Steger and Sean Otto—events run 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.
May 2 at University of California, Berkeley: "Putting the Fun Back in Infrastructure"—6:00 pm, location TBA.
May 3 at the American Institute of Architects, San Francisco Chapter—Lunchtime lecture, time and location TBA.
May 3 at Barnes and Noble, El Cerrito, Cali.—7:00 pm.
May 30 in New York City—Panel on local and DIY energy with the New America Foundation
June 22-25 in Aspen, Colorado: Aspen Environment Forum
July 5-8 at CONvergence in Minneapolis, Minn.—exact times and dates TBA


Where not otherwise specified, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States and other countries.