Hardtack Is Easy to Make, Hard to Eat

I have always wondered whether hardtack, the food staple that Union soldiers called jawbreakers and worm castles, was really all that bad. 

Hardtack, a tough, flat, bland cracker, was often cursed. It became the subject of poems and songs. On a long march, it was often the only food available.

The three-inch squares, turned out by the millions under government contract at assorted bakeries, were made of flour, water and salt. Some of the men tried to alter their rock-hard consistency by smashing them with rifle butts and mixing in river water to make a mush. If a frying pan was available, the mush could be cooked into a lumpy pancake. If not, it was dropped directly on campfire coals.

For dessert, hardtack was sometimes crumbled with brown sugar and hot water. If whiskey was available, that was added. The resulting dish was called a pudding.

The cracker appears to have earned the name "hardtack" during the Civil War, but the military staple had been around for many years. In earlier wars, it was called "hard bread" and "army bread."

Hardtack often arrived at a Union camp riddled with worms if it had been carelessly stored  it was often left out in the open in huge piles, where flies and other insects would lay eggs. By the time a soldier got his allotment, chances were good that it was wormy.

"A New England soldier advised that the crackers be soaked in coffee first -- some said six weeks was long enough -- and then laid on a plate, taking care not to shake the worms out. 'They eat better than they look,' he said, 'and are so much clear gain in the way of fresh meat.' "

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.

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

A recipe for hardtack:

"Mix 5 cups of flour to 1 cup of water containing a 1/2-tablespoon of salt. Knead into a dough and roll out to 3/8-inch thickness. Cut into approximately 3-inch squares and pierce each with a fork or ice pick several times. Bake in a 400-degree oven for 30 minutes or until slightly brown."