One thing I forgot...

When I was doing the Civil War articles, I mentioned the hardtack that the event organizers prepared and passed out to all who attended.  To the best of my knowledge, I did not see anyone try to eat one of these "biscuits," but I did mention that there was a Confederate surgeon on site just in case someone tried and broke off a tooth or worse.  Of course, I'm not sure the treatment would have been better than the actual injury.

 Most generally, the hardtack biscuit was a 3"x3" concoction that was intended to feed soldiers or sailors.  They would last for long periods of time, and generally traveled well.  You can Google the word "hardtack" and get a whole page of articles on how to make these things, how to attempt to eat them, and some of the ways they have been "improved." 

Below is a short excerpt from one of the articles, courtesy of Wikipedia (note the underlined section -- yum, yum!):  

During the American Civil War (1861–65), three-inch by three-inch (7.5 cm by 7.5 cm) hardtack was shipped from Union and Confederate storehouses. Some of this hardtack had been stored from the 1846–48 Mexican–American War. With insect infestation common in improperly stored provisions, soldiers would break up the hardtack and drop it into their morning coffee. This would not only soften the hardtack but the insects, mostly weevil larvae, would float to the top, and the soldiers could skim off the insects and resume consumption. Some men also turned hardtack into a mush by breaking it up with blows from their rifle butts, then adding water. If the men had a frying pan, they could cook the mush into a lumpy pancake; otherwise they dropped the mush directly on the coals of their campfire. They also mixed hardtack with brown sugar, hot water, and sometimes whiskey to create what they called a pudding, to serve as dessert.

 

Given the size of these things, a foot soldier in the Civil War could have carried a whole week's supply of food in a shirt pocket.  I pounded this one (shown above) on the desk here by the computer.  Hit it pretty hard for about a half dozen tries and didn't make a mark on it -- the desk has some scrapings though.  I wonder if these were ever tried for resoling shoes or playing Frisbee.  These even made the old "John Wayne" bars of our C-rats look good.

I know -- if this was all you had to eat, you would make do and would have gotten creative.  The old saying, "Adapt and overcome" takes on a whole new meaning in light of this.  And I had to laugh to myself when I had a flash back to my story of the "hard boiled eggs and bananas" we had one morning in the field.  I guess that was gourmet dining compared to these.

I think I am going to take this up to the bank and put it in our safe deposit box.  Can't imagine the comments and surprise when they open that box some years from now.  I'm sure it will be in the same condition as it is now, and just as tasty!

"You are fools to make yourselves slaves to a piece of fat bacon, some hard-tack, and a little sugar and coffee." (Attributed to Chief Sitting Bull)

 Hooah