Hardtack
Tune: Hardtack Come Again No More
Also called "hard crackers", "tack", "iron plate", and "army bread". A staple of the Union Army, though much less common in the Confederate camps, where flour ranged from scarce to unheard of.
Hardtack was usually loathed by the troops, and was the subject of at least one comic soldiers' song (the tune for which you are hearing).
Take the following ingredients:
5 cups flour (unbleached)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 - 1 1/4 cups water
Preheat oven to 450
In a bowl, combine the ingredients to form a stiff, but not dry, dough. The dough should be pliable, but not too sticky.
Take this mound of dough, and flatten it out onto a greased cookie sheet, and roll the dough until it is approximately 1/2 inch thick.
Using a bread knife, cut the dough into 3x3 squares. It looks good to take a nail or bolt, and put a matrix of holes through the dough at regular intervals, like this:
OK, you get the idea. There are good hardtack cutters available from various Sutlers such as Village Tinsmiths.
Bake in the oven for approximately 20 minutes until lightly browned, then remove to cool.
If you cook the hardtack the day before the end it will be chewy and fairly soft, but within two days it will harden to the point where you will want to soak it in your coffee, soup, or stew.
If you want a "sweet" hardtack, you can add a cup of brown sugar to the recipe. It may not be authentic, but my pards are happy enough to eat it.
Cornmeal Recipes:
Bannock, Johnny cakes, Hoe cakes
Cornmeal may have been more commonly issued to Confederate troops than to Union troops, though Federal foragers in the south would likely come across it quite frequently.
Cooking with cornmeal involves two basic ingredients, cornmeal and water. Make sure that you use hot water and stir/knead the dough well until it is somewhat soft. Otherwise the dough will be more gritty than sticky, an will fall apart when you fry it.
Here are three basic recipes from the Kentucky Housewife (1839), as quoted on CW Re-enactors' list::
Indian Hoe Cakes
"Sift a quart of Indian meal, mix with it a large teaspoonful of salt, two large spoonfuls of butter, and make it a thin dough with sweet milk. Bake them as the pumpkin hoe cakes [in small thin cakes on a greased griddle, hastily, turning them over once], and butter and eat them warm."
Indian Water Cakes
"Indian water cakes, when made of stiff dough, and baked with a hard crust, of all cakes are the most disgusting; but when made in a proper manner, they are really good. Sift some fine Indian meal, make it a soft dough with
cold water, and work it well. Heat your griddle hot, clean and grease it well, and place it over a bed of clear coals; then put on your cakes, make them small, thin and smooth, bake them hastily turn them over as soon as the crust is a light brown, and when they are done through, which will take but a very short time, split and butter them, and send them to table immediately."
Johnny Cakes
"Make a thin dough of sifted Indian meal and lukewarm water or sweet milk, adding a tea-spoonful of salt, and a large spoonful of butter to each quart of meal. Work it well, as Indian meal, in whatever way it is prepared, should be worked thoroughly. Having ready a piece of board planed smooth, wet it with water, and put on a cake of the dough about three quarters of an inch thick, make it smooth and even round the edges, brush it over with sweet cream, and brown it lightly before a clear fire, propping it on one edge by setting something behind it, to support it. Then run the blade of a knife or a sewing thread between the bread and board, to loose it, turn it over, brown the other side in the same manner, first moistening it with sweet cream, and then cut it across in small cakes, split them, lay a slice of firm butter on one half of each piece, put them together again, and send them immediately to table."
There's also a sweeter kind, from the American Frugal Housewife, 1832:
Indian Cake
"Indian cake, or bannock, is sweet and cheap food. One quart of sifted meal, two great spoonfuls of molasses, two tea-spoonfuls of salt, a bit of shortening half as big as a hen's egg, stirred together; make it pretty moist with scalding water, put it into a well greased pan, smooth over the surface with a spoon, and bake it brown on both sides, before a quick fire... Bannock split and dipped in butter makes very nice toast."
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