Ships biscuits... For GAoP?

[Fox]

Oh yeah, I'm sure there were different varieties of biscuit made by different suppliers. De Saussure was talkign about RN biscuit and the photo is of some private contract stuff, so it's safe to say that white was fairly common, but not exclusive I would imagine.

[MadMike]

Anyone who can't make biscuit should be lashed to the mast and forced to watch "Food Network" for 24 hours.

Seriously though, biscuit is easy to make, will last just about forever and it even tastes good (and yes, even looks like the 1784 century example).

Yours, Mike

[kass]

As someone who frequently burns water, I take offense!

[Fox]

Ex-Vixene once burnt trifle... :)

[kass]

See, I wouldn't even aspire to trifle! I aspire to having men cook for me.

[Rumba Rue]

Well I can cook, but I am NOT making ships biscuts!

[Patrick Hand]

I aspire to having men cook for me.

Kass.... how do you like yer oatmeal.... runny or lumpy ?

And no new ship's biscuts untill we finnish these from three years ago......

ON TOPIC.... I still have a few Ship's biscuts that are three years old, (made with a little oil) and they are still eatable, just no weavles yet.....

[kass]

I had oatmeal with weevils in it once. Well, I didn't eat it. My campmate handed me a bowl and I looked at it and thought, "What are these interesting little shapes in the oatmeal?" They probably weren't weevils but moth larvae. The instant oatmeal packets had been sitting on her shelf for sometime, but she figured if they were never opened, they'd be fine.

[Gentleman of Fortune]

And no new ship's biscuts untill we finnish these from three years ago......

**snicker**

GoF

[Rumba Rue]

Hey Patrick, with any luck, if you keep them for another ten years or so, you can put them in the Smithsonian!

[CaptainJackRussell]

Thanks for this thread

I tried to make ships bisquits as well, using 80% wheat white flour, 20% pea flour (bought in an indian foodstore), mixed with water and a little salt.

I rolled it to 5mm thick plate, then using a large glass to cut out circles. A flower display I used to make the holes for breaking.

The baking itself was more a kind of drying. I used 170°C and baked them until a light brown color.

Indeed, their taste is a little like nuts, and the are hard like hell. Good teeth required.

Quite funny indeed is that the german army has such cookies until today issued. The german EPA (german version of MRE) contains always a packet of "Hartkeks", translated best with "Hardtack", well known as "SAPI-Plates" within the german armed forces.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...tkeks_offen.jpg

Some people indeed like them, but it seems to be a soldier's teeth test to eat. Anyways, they don't taste so bad once chewed. The alternative use is to light a fire with them. Get firewood, make a fine fireplace. Then (we did it quite often during my times at military duty) make a sandwich using the cookies and the issued shoe polish. Light with a windproof match. It burns like hell and lights any fire in a few moments.

I prefer the US crackers:)

By the way, does anyone know where I can get cold weather version of MRE to order? They should ship to Germany and accept Paypal.

Tally Ho,

Jack/ Marcus

[Patrick Hand]

This is out of Period, but interesting.... it is from a site about Nelson... that Blackjohn posted about how Knots of speed were measured... but I looked at some of the other topics and found this on "The Biscuit Factory"

http://www.twogreens.com/wakeup/lifeatsea/biscuit.htm

[Mission]

An interesting "Cheat" for anyone that wants to make hardtack/Sea biscuits...

Add a little oil to the dough mix... It can't be documented, but you can eat the biscuit then.... Flour, salt and water makes "Play Dough"... With the oil, you have something that will keep forever, and is eatable......

Aha! Leave it to the estimable Patrick Hand to present a solution to the concrete-like substance of hard tack. I was reading about Ship's biscuits at Brigand's Grove and I learned that the closer you get the biscuit to the actual cooking time, the softer it is. They get harder and harder as they spend more time drying out. This may explain why Coastie said that the CG cook biscuit made without oil was "...not nearly as flakey, but was still rather palatable, about as salty as saltine crackers, but more substantial." Learned a lot this past weekend, I did. For example, I also read that people did not just take a chaw off the biscuit, they cut slivers of it off or smashed it with something hard and put the tiny pieces into their soup.

[Dutchman]

when i did the nelsons navy diet experiment a few years ago (incidentally, i would not recommend trying it as our modern bellies are too soft) i found reconstituted with the peas and a bit of beef left from the day before with a bit of butter was a good meal. i also liked them soaked in water with a drizzle of molasses over them.

[MarkG]

We used to have enough biscuit on the Santa Maria to nibble on it occasionally. Even the hard stuff softens up after you gnaw on it. The salt in it tastes good on a hot day.

[Grymm]

We did an 1812 'do' at the Tower of London and we made biscuit for that (flour water salt), it worked well as a thickener /bulker for the stews and one of the leftover biscuits served as a teether for both my mates children.

Edited August 23, 2011 by Grymm

[Grymm]

Mashed up with a bit of gravy and suet and made into 'dumplings' worked too.

Reminded me of 'Biscuits AB' from British Army Compo Rations, you could stand on the packets and not break the things.

[Littleneckhalfshell]

it would be interesting if one of those 'food' contest shows, would put ships biscuit as a mystery ingredient! ;-) Then see where they go from there.

[Swashbuckler 1700]

From the 1701 Admiralty regulations for victualling, daily allowance per man:

"One pound avoirdupois of good sound, clean, well bolted with a horse cloth, well baked, and well conditioned wheaten biscuit."

South of 39N rusk could be substituted for biscuit.

Writing in the mid 1720s the Swiss Cesar de Saussure described RN issue biscuits, "as large as a plate, white, and so hard that those sailors who have no teeth, or bad ones, must crush them or soften them with water. I found them, however, very much to my taste, and they reminded me of nuts."

Good quote which tells much about the sea life .... ”Those who had no teeth, or bad ones". Are there much old biscuits left? I have found only one picture and it is late 18th C biscuit. I am just asking for fun.

Hmm I wonder would it taste good ...

http://www.rmg.co.uk...php?f=D4001.jpg

[Mission]

It doesn't taste like much of anything to me. Of course, the only hard tack I've had had to be soaked for quite a long time in broth before you could even begin to eat it.

True to their name they are incredibly hard and nearly impervious to all liquids. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find that the cobblestone streets in Europe are laid upon a foundation of ship's biscuits.

[Fox]

See my quote from Cesar de Saussure, above.

If the hard tack you ate was tasteless, impervious to liquid, and too hard for someone with healthy teeth to eat, then it probably wasn't right.

[Swashbuckler 1700]

It doesn't taste like much of anything to me. Of course, the only hard tack I've had had to be soaked for quite a long time in broth before you could even begin to eat it.

True to their name they are incredibly hard and nearly impervious to all liquids. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find that the cobblestone streets in Europe are laid upon a foundation of ship's biscuits.

I was meaning would the over 200 eyars old food eatable....

[Fox]

I doubt anyone will ever find out, since 200 year old hard tack would be too valuable to eat.

However, I suspect that it would probably taste much the same after 200 years as it does after 2 years. I have a few pieces of ten year old hard tack which I use for education work, and which is just as edible now as it was when I made it. Since the very old surviving hard-tack looks the same as it did when it was fresh baked, I imagine that it tastes much the same too. If it survives going mouldy in the first month it'd probably last forever.

[Capt. Sterling]

So has anyone come across an actual period recipe yet or is everyone still guesstimating?

[Grymm]

From the Royal Naval Museum

http://www.royalnavalmuseum.org/info_sheet_ship_biscuit.htm

THE NAVAL "HARD TACK"

There has always been a need for nutritious, easy to store, easy to carry and long-lasting foods in the Royal Navy. Nuts, fruits, vegetables, live game and fish fulfilled a limited role, but the introduction of cooking and baking various cereals provided a more reliable source of food for travellers, especially at sea. Egyptian sailors carried a flat brittle loaf of maize bread called dhourra cake. The Romans had a biscuit called buccellum

King Richard I (Lionheart) left for the Third Crusade (1189-92) with “biskit of muslin” - mixed corn compound of barley, rye and bean flour. At the time of the Armada in 1588, the daily allowance on board ship was 1lb of biscuit plus 1 gallon of beer. It was Samuel Pepys in 1667 who first regularised naval victualling with varied and nutritious rations.

Biscuits remained an important part of the sailor’s diet until the introduction of canned foods and bread. Preserved beef in tins was officially introduced in 1847, although tinned items had previously been used in arctic exploration. Canned meat was first marketed in 1813. In the mid-1850s with improved design and new baking equipment, it became possible to bake bread on board ship.

Biscuits have always been made to a large and varied recipes e.g. seed biscuits, fruit biscuits, long biscuits etc. The essential and common ingredients were flour and water, Most flour used today is milled from North American wheat or similar hard grain cereals. It would be difficult to produce an historically authentic biscuit from modern refined flour.

Recipe

To produce a similar plain ships biscuit, a medium coarse stone-ground wholemeal flour should be used.

Add water to 1lb wholemeal flour and 1/4oz salt to make a stiff dough. Leave for 1/2 hour and then roll out very thickly. Separate in to 5 or 7 biscuits. Bake in a hot oven approx. 420 degrees F for 30 minutes. The biscuits should then be left undisturbed in a warm dry atmosphere to harden and dry out.

Biscuits are still purchased for the Ministry of Defence for use in operational ration packs but not for general messing.

© Royal Naval Museum Library, 2000