Hardtack

Hardtack - Easy to Make, Hard to Eat

Hardtack, a tough, flat, bland cracker, they contain protein, vitamins and a fair amount of calories. It is known by other names such as pilot bread, ship's biscuit, ship biscuit, sea biscuit, cabin bread, sea bread or pejoratively "dog biscuits", "tooth dullers", "sheet iron", "worm castles", "edible rock ", or "molar breakers".

If the hardtack is un-moistened, it is nearly hard enough to stop a musket ball. Unless kept dry while in storage, the biscuits would quickly grow moldy and spoil. But even it is kept dry, they could easily become infested with weevil larvae or maggots. Sailors and soldiers alike would remove the parasites by soaking the ...

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pancake. If not, it was dropped directly on campfire coals. Hardtack was sometimes crumbled with brown sugar and hot water. If whiskey was available, that was added. The resulting dish was called a pudding.

Interesting things:

During the siege of Richmond, some soldiers who cracked the hardtack open to find it teeming with worms were disgusted and threw the crackers into the bottom of the earthen trenches they occupied. An officer of the day yelled at the men, asking whether they hadn't been told repeatedly not to throw the hardtack into the trenches.

Leon

Back came the reply, "We've thrown it out two or three times, sir, but it crawls ...

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Hardtack. (2014, June 16). Retrieved March 31, 2020, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hardtack/104208

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"Hardtack." Essayworld.com. June 16, 2014. Accessed March 31, 2020. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hardtack/104208.

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 6/16/2014 05:24:54 AM
Submitted By: leonchung
Category: Miscellaneous
Type: Free Paper
Words: 324
Pages: 2

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