/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Anonymous No.10469715]

Hey yall.

I'm not a cook. I don't know anything about cooking. But for whatever reason, I sort of became interested in easy to make foods that can last an absurdly long time, and started looking up lists. Of course the usual things came up, like grains, beans, honey, rice, but one thing stood out. It was a food that had to made called "Hardtack", which is basically an extremely hard type of biscuit made from basically just flour and water, and maybe some salt. This was eaten by people out at sea for long periods of time a long while back, and during military campaigns and stuff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardtack

My question is, considering this is just a simple recipe, are there ways to change it to make it taste better while still keeping its awesome qualities of lasting bloody forever and being simple to make?

If I were to add cocoa to the mix, would I then have created chocolate tasting hardtack? Cocoa lasts a long time, right? Or does it need condensed milk or something to actually end up tasting good, which would ruin the shelf life?

Also, just out of curiosity, are there any other foods like this you all know about?

Thanks everyone.

[Anonymous No.10469721]

>>10469715
>eating hardtack for flavor

It's just a large, solid cracker, dude. Add some onion or garlic powder.

[Anonymous No.10469732]

>>10469721
Yeah but having long lasting chocolate hardtack sounds hilarious to me and if it actually tastes nice I'd like to make some.

[Anonymous No.10471647]

>>10469715
Generally, the more stuff you add to hardtack, the faster it spoils. Adding just cacao powder won't give it much of a chocolate taste, it would just be pretty bitter. It needs milk/fat/sugar to actually taste like chocolate. Unless you're into really dark chocolate.

[Anonymous No.10471653]

>>10469715
You could add herbs or spices to it without affecting the shelf life by much. But like another anon said the more you add the more you ruin its long-term durability. Anything with fat or oil in it would be right out (rancidity). Likewise anything with moisture--or that would tend to attract moisture from the air (hydroscopic ingredients) would also fuck the shelf life.

[Anonymous No.10471662]

Not as long lasting but check out recipes for Logan bread,pemmican,jerky. Basically drying or salting was the traditional way to preserve food.

[Anonymous No.10471679]

>>10469715
look up how to make pemmican.

funny enough I've been thinking the same thing, but something other than a mealprep sunday where, you'll have to eat the same thing everyday for a week. I have low grade depression where sometimes I can't even feel like leaving my bed let alone my house, but sometimes I'm fine and go out, and so even me making a bunch of food isn't too viable as I end up throwing away half of it. I'm not even sure if it's the depression or lack of calories that's doing me in making me so tired, so having something I can just grab, whenever, at anytime, has been good

either way, look up drying foods too, jerky, etc. There's a youtube series called Townsends which is a wholesome guy cooking stuff from the 1800s, a lot of those last a long time. or maybe also invest in some MREs or something. also invest in a vacuum sealer too then

[Anonymous No.10471750]

>>10469715
Union soldier here, make the hardtack and fry it in bacon grease, or crumble it into soup. Also fuck traitors.

[Anonymous No.10471818]

>>10471662
>pemmican
Not OP but since tallow (fat) was added to the chopped berries and meat to make pemmican how did it last long term without becoming rancid or did they just eat it when it was rancid anyway? Lean jerky seems like it would last much longer.

[Anonymous No.10472990]

Just checking if the site broke or something

[Anonymous No.10473020]

>>10471818
I'm not sure. But "rancidity" in this sense is not dangerous, it just tastes bad. It's not spoilage in the bacterial sense, but rather a reaction between the fats and oxygen in the air.

You are correct that leaner meat wouldn't have as much of a problem with rancidity.

[Anonymous No.10474360]

OP here.
So, couldn't I just add sugar at least to make it taste nicer, while still keeping its absurd shelf life?

I mean, isn't sugar a preservative ?

What are some simple things I could add that would really improve the taste while keeping shelf life?

I know it's stupid to care about the taste for hardtack of all things but I'm asking cuz I'm just interested as well.

[Anonymous No.10474374]

>>10474360
Then again, I've also heard that adding sugar would make the whole thing soft, which I guess would ruin the shelf life.

What about adding honey directly to the mixture? Or would that get cooked out completely during baking?

[Anonymous No.10474375]

What about jerky infused hardtack? Could be good

[Anonymous No.10474378]

>>10474360
Sugar can act as a preservative if it is present in high enough concentration to dessicate microorganisms. If it's in small quantities then it is microbe food--i.e. fermentation.

[Anonymous No.10474382]

>>10469715
you are a neon abomination, kind sir

[Anonymous No.10474387]

>>10474382
Good work. Do I get the gas now?

[Anonymous No.10474392]

>>10469715
lembas

[Anonymous No.10474414]

>>10474387
no but you do get a suggestion. cocoa butter

[Anonymous No.10474425]

>>10474414
Wouldn't butter annihilate the shelf life into practically nothing compared to its century lasting glory?

[Anonymous No.10474437]

>>10474425
cocoa butter has nothing to do with dairy butter made from milk

[Anonymous No.10474442]

>>10469715
Perpetual stew is the future, you can make it last forever as long as you burn huge amounts of fuel constantly keeping it hot

[Anonymous No.10474449]

>>10469721
WTF I want garlic tackers now

[Anonymous No.10474458]

>>10474414
This
>>10474437
And this. Maybe even carob?

[Anonymous No.10474477]

>>10474437
Interesting. I'll try to figure out a little more about this. Cheers for the suggestion.

Honestly the cheers applies to everyone in this thread though. People have been helpful.

[Anonymous No.10474509]

>>10473020
You need fat in your diet to survive.

Rabbit starvation was a term coined for Indians who had nothing to eat but rabbits during parts of the year and starved to death because rabbits are too lean. Eat as many as you like you are still going to starve to death (some went mad and ate people).

[Anonymous No.10474640]

>>10474509
you can read but you cannot comprehend

[Anonymous No.10474806]

>>10469715
Going to just start dropping some townsends on you now.

while our gentle boy is right in saying that hardtack was less a food and more of an ingredient (you're basically making a solid brick of convenient carbs), I make it on occasion and it's fucking delicious just plain (if a bit hard to gnaw on)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyjcJUGuFVg

You'll probably want to see his videos on salt pork, pemmican, and the recent smoked bison video too.

[Anonymous No.10475885]

>Wanting chocolate outta hardtack

shit dude, good fuckin luck. You're better off eating a brick covered in nutella.

[Anonymous No.10475924]

>>10474360
Nah dude bacteria love sugar, my money says it'll rot. But why not try both ways? The ingredients are cheap

[Anonymous No.10476004]

>>10475924
Bacteria also need moisture to survive. It's not like the bag of sugar in your pantry is prone to rotting on its own, is it? So, if he made a proper extremely dehydrated hard tack it should survive fine even loaded with sugar.

[Anonymous No.10476014]

>30 replies and this hasn't been posted yet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga5JrN9DrVI

[Anonymous No.10476845]

>>10469715
Adding sourdough leaven would add a bit of sourness (no shit) and possibly increase shelf life. Give a thought to the storage as well. Dessicate and/or vacuum pack it so that it will last until heat death. It might be better to carry a jar of honey separately to help the hardtack go down, since honey has no expiry date.

Another trick is to grind the hardtack, add a bit of water to make a fucked-up dough, then wrap it around a stick and make fucked-up bannock. This works because hardtack lasts significantly longer than raw flour.