Page 89 - All About History - Issue 54-17

How to make… you know?

Did

SHIP’S BISCUITS was baked four times, rather

For long voyages, hardtack

than the more common
two, and prepared at least
six months before
LONG-LASTING SAILOR FUEL GREAT BRITAIN, 1655-1847 setting sail.

Ingredients
O 450g stone-ground
wholemeal flour
O 113g salt
O 300ml water

ntil tinned food, there were limited means of preserving METHOD
food so that it would survive a long sea voyage. Sailors

01 Start your hardtack by sifting your salt when it’s done! Sailors often dunked their
needed something versatile to sustain them and the
and flour into a mixing bowl. You can biscuits in beer or water.
Uanswer was hardtack, also known as ‘ship’s biscuits’.
use any flour for this, but if you’re keen
These cracker-type foodstuffs were baked to remove all
to replicate the historical recipe to see 04 Roll out the dough and shape it into
moisture so that they could be stored and eaten for years.
what food was like for sailors, use coarse, large, rounded biscuits. You can do this
Though flavourless and very dry, sailors often ate hardtack
stone-ground wholemeal flour. with a sharp knife, or use a cutter if you
on its own, while it also formed the basis for other meals like
want to make them all even.
porridge. Blackened and added to hot water, it could even be

02 Add the water to the flour and salt
drunk as improvised coffee.
and stir until you reach a sticky dough 05 Place your biscuits on a baking tray and
Hardtack has taken various forms over time, from ancient
consistency. If you want to sample prick holes all over them to let the air out
Egyptian dhourra cake made with maize flour and bucellatum
hardtack but you don’t fancy the iron- when cooking. This also helps them dry
eaten by Roman legions on long journeys, to the “biskits of
hard snack in its full glory, you can use out even more.
muslin” Richard I set sail for the Third Crusades with. But it
milk instead of water and include 50g
was diarist Samuel Pepys who regularised the Royal Navy’s
of melted butter. 06 Put into a preheated oven at 200°C for
own provisions in 1655. He made the first comprehensive table
40 minutes. Your biscuits then need time
of rations, including, “one pound daily of good, clean, sweet,
03 Leave the dough to sit for half an hour. to dry out even more so store them in
sound, well-baked and well-conditioned wheaten biscuit” for
You could use this time to look up some a warm, dry place before enjoying with
each sailor, along with a gallon of beer to wash it down.
innovative ways of eating your hardtack your favourite sailor recipe.
Did you make it? How did it go? www.historyanswers.co.uk /AllAboutHistory @AboutHistoryMag 89