Too hard to be eaten whole when cooking was not possible, it was usually broken up in the field with a rock or rifle butt, small chunks placed in the cheek, and softened with saliva enough to be chewed and swallowed. When it could be cooked, hard tack would often be soaked in water before frying it in bacon grease to soften it and give it some flavor. Soldiers also referred to their hard tack as "sheet iron crackers", "teeth dullers", and even "worm castles"; the last a references to the weevils and maggots all too often found in hard tack boxes. "All the fresh meat we had come in the hard bread," one soldier opined, "and I, preferring my game cooked, used to toast my biscuits."

The recipes that follow will render one legitimate, specification-driven form of hard tack, and then a variant or two that will be just as apt to be the hard tack that was actually baked, although not exactly according to specification. Had all manufacturers adhered to specifications, there would be little controversy or argument on most War Between the States items as to what constitutes "authentic"; however, if there was reason to believe that all manufacturers followed the specifications, there would have been no reason for the government of that time to send inspectors into the factories to inspect the goods. Should you want to include the "meat" of the hard tack as the soldier we mentioned discussed, you will have to supply that yourself; they are neither government spec nor demonstrably a cost-saver manufacturers slopped into the recipe.

By the same token, keep in mind that the contract bakers who made their fortunes from the War often did not properly cool and dry the crackers before packing, causing mold to form. Another method that resulted in a horrific hard tack ration was the practice of allowing unprotected crates of hard tack to sit for days after being rained upon. Even the army itself was sometimes responsible for distributing a truly nasty, ripe product. Some troops, nearly starved, were thrilled to receive even those sorts of shipments.

The government had specifications for food products such as hardtack, and even for the shipping crates used for their shipment. Not all manufacturers adhered to the government specifications, though. There is at least one example of Confederate hardtack that had been issued at Libby Prison that was round, made roughly the diameter of a biscuit. There are also examples of Confederate hardtack that were made from corn meal or rice meal. There is even reason to believe that some manufacturers even used self-rising flour, although no government specifications of which we are aware call for self-rising flour. Among extant examples of both Federal and Confederate hardtack, there are examples that are rectangular (2 3/4" X 3 1/2", 3" X 3 1/4", 3 1/2" X 4") as well as square. Even among the square examples are some rare examples that are as large as 5" X 5". While we are not suggesting that such variants were the norm, we are also not suggesting that one size or shape was all that was made during the War Between the States.

The 1862 US Army book of recipes has a recipe guaranteed to keep your dentist happy without ever running the risk of satisfying your hunger. The following recipe renders a hardtack that is as edible as the original, and will stay fresh for a long, long time so long as it stays dry. In 1996, a piece of hardtack was taken from the ground at Port Hudson State Commemorative Area in Port Hudson, Louisiana, and except for being stained in color by the soil, was as fresh as the day it was made in 1862 or 1863. Think about that as you enjoy your hardtack.

5 cups unbleached flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
1 to 1 1/4 cups water

Preheat the oven to 450°. Combine the ingredients to make a stiff, pliable dough. The dough needs to be moist, not dry; but not so moist that it clings to your hands. Roll the dough flat on a greased cookie sheet until the dough is approximately one-half of an inch thick. Cut the dough into 3 1/4" X 3 1/4" squares. Then, using a ten-penny nail to pierce the squares all the way through, make a pattern of sixteen holes - four rows across, four rows down (should you desire to make a significant quantity of hardtack, a consistent and faster method of making the series of holes can be accomplished by using a wood block and tin flashing nails; such a production expedient is manufactured and available from the Richmondville Tin Works). The holes need to be 3/4" away from any edge. Bake for approximately twenty minutes until the hardtack is lightly browned. Remove it from the oven and let it cool.

If baked the Friday you leave for an event, the following morning the hardtack will still be relatively pliable and somewhat chewable Saturday morning. By Sunday, the interior portion of the hardtack will have cured (assuming that the weather is not particularly humid); from that point forward, it will be necessary to soak your hardtack in any sort of fluid before attempting to chew it, should you desire to keep your dental work intact

Another recipe for hardtack appeared in the "Camp Chase Gazette" in the March 1989 issue. While rendering a reasonably accurate result in terms of appearance, it comes much closer than the original to allowing you to keep all of your dental work.

Ingredients:
4 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoons salt
2/3 cup shortening

Sift four cups unbleached flour and two teaspoons salt into a large bowl. Add 2/3 cups shortening, working it in a little at a time, using your hands to mix it in. Knead the dough for twenty minutes until the dough has an elastic consistency. Roll the dough on an ungreased cookie sheet until the dough is approximately one-half of an inch thick. Cut the dough into 3 1/4" X 3 1/4" squares. Pierce the hardtack as described in the previous recipe. into a rectangle about 2 7/8 inch by 3 1/8 inch. Poke four rows of four holes in each piece. Bake in a pre-heated oven about 400 degrees F. for about 30 to 40 minutes, or until brown on top.

Contractors were instructed to use only hard winter wheat in making hard tack. The closest, most readily available modern equivalent of that is unbleached, stone-ground whole-wheat flour. For this recipe, it’s recommended that you do not use any salt, which tends to absorb moisture.

Ingredients:
One cup water
5 cups flour

Mix the water and flour to make a stiff dough. Roll the dough out to 1/2" thick, and cut it into 3 1/4" X 3 1/4" squares. Pierce as described in the first recipe. Bake at 350° for 20 to 25 minutes until lightly browned.

To make hard tack more palatable, soak it in water or coffee until it is thoroughly moist. Then fry it until it turns a golden brown. Once it is removed from the frying pan, dust it with confectioner’s sugar. We’re told that hard tack’s flavor can be enhanced considerably by not baking it to a brick-like consistency, but rather leaving it a little bit soft - and by adding a bit of cinnamon and sugar to the recipe. While hard-core re-enactors (or authenticists) would frown on this practice, it’s one way you can prepare a weekend’s worth of hardtack that is edible, palatable, and doesn’t require you to suffer while putting on the appearance of authenticity. Of course, not having to gnaw at it as if it were an old boot may detract somewhat from the authentic look, but only the hard-core folks will know the difference.

It is commonly believed that slaves created hoecakes in the fields of the South. If so, they are owed a debt of thanks for this Southron delight.

Hoecakes of the period were a little higher or taller than today’s pancakes, flapjacks, or hotcakes, owing in large part to the fact that a dough was used instead of a batter. As great as they taste, hoecakes were, like cornbread, somewhat contributory to a health problem that was all too common in the South for many years - pellagra. Although wheat is an excellent source of niacin, corn almost totally lacks it. A diet that is niacin-poor will lead to pellagra, which can be fatal. Once that was discovered, cornbread and hoecakes lost something of their dear place in the hearts of Southrons, and the bread companies - most memorably Wonder Bread - jumped on the niacin bandwagon in their advertising. That’s not to suggest that hoecakes or cornbread should be avoided, but simply to remind you of why it is that Wonder Bread has niacin and iron as prominent ingredients in their old advertising, and why it was claimed that it helped make strong bodies in twelve ways.

Ingredients:
2 cups cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon melted fat (or vegetable oil)

Mix together the cornmeal, salt, and baking powder. Add the fat (or oil), and stir in just enough water to make a soft dough - not a batter. It needs to have a firmer consistency than batter. Once the dough has been prepared, drop by spoonfuls onto a hot, greased griddle to make small cakes. When they begin to turn brown, turn them over on the griddle to brown on the other side. When both sides are brown, remove from the griddle. Serve them hot with molasses, butter, jam, syrup, or preserves.

There is another, older recipe for hoecakes that is worthy of your consideration.

Ingredients:
1/2 tablespoon lard
1 pint cornmeal
1 teaspoon soda
5 ounces boiling water

Sift one teaspoon of soda into a pint of meal and work in one-half tablespoon of lard into the mixture. Add five ounces of boiling water and stir well. Bake on a hot, greased griddle until brown, and then turn it over to bake on the other side until brown.

As you probably know, honey is often combined with lemon juice to soothe sore throats or the ease the aches of a cold.  Scarlet fever, simply a form of strep throat that can be cured by an antibiotic, responds well to the honey-and-lemon-juice mixture that a lot of people use for their sore throats.

Honey is also used to help the body retain fluids; some athletes, when preparing for strenuous exercise, take a teaspoon or so of honey to help them keep from dehydrating.  A teaspoon of honey before bedtime may help prevent late night or early morning trips to the port-a-johns.

Hot Chocolate
Chocolate was not generally available and popular as bar chocolate to be eaten as we now eat a Hershey’s Bar today, but was used to make hot chocolate. While it had been made in the form of an edible bar by 1847, the primary use to which chocolate was put was for hot chocolate. In an 1858 cookbook,  a recipe is given for hot chocolate; ingredients list provided by us :

Ingredients:
1 quart water
4 tablespoons grated chocolate
1 quart rich milk
1 salt-spoon nutmeg

American Chocolate--Procure the best chocolate, grate it, and allow for one quart of water four table-spoons of chocolate; mix free from lumps with little water, and boil fifteen minutes. Then add one quart of rich milk, let it boil, grate in a salt-spoonful of nutmeg, and sweeten to the taste; add cream at the table.

Another, earlier recipe is shown as follows; the ingredients list is provided by us:

Ingredients:
1 cup milk or water
1 ounce cake chocolate

Make this beverage, either with milk or water, put a cup of one or the other of these liquids into a chocolate-pot, with one ounce of cake chocolate. Some persons will dissolve the chocolate in a little water before they put it into the milk. As soon as the milk or water begins to boil, mill it. When the chocolate is dissolved, and begins to bubble, take it off the fire and let it stand near the fire for a quarter of an hour.  Mill it again to make it frothy; afterwards serve it in cups. The chocolate must not be milled without it is prepared with cream.

Some believed that "hot drinks" were injurious to the health, and provided an unwanted and unnecessary - even harmful- stimulus to the system. Miss Catharine Beecher went on record as saying that they are "stimulants" and therefore are "not good" for the body, according to her A Treatise on Domestic Economy, published in 1841. Perhaps she was right.

Ingredients:
1/2 pound bacon (one complete slab, unsliced)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup long-grain rice
2 cups black-eyed peas, canned or dried

If you use dried peas, soak them over night in cold water. Cook the bacon in 2 quarts of water at a medium heat for about one hour. Then add black-eyed peas and salt. Continue cooking for about 30 minutes until the peas are just barely tender. Add rice, and boil it for fifteen to eighteen minutes longer. Lift out the bacon, slice it, and set it aside, keeping it warm. Drain the peas and rice thoroughly. Then place the mixture in a warm oven for a few minutes until the rice is fluffy. Serve it with the sliced bacon on top. This will feed about six folks.

Boil 2 ounces of dried horehound in a pint and a half of water for about half an hour. Strain and add three and a half pounds brown sugar. Boil over a hot fire until it is sufficiently hard. Pour out in flat, well greased tin trays and mark into sticks or small squares with a knife, as soon as it is cool enough to retain its shape.

This recipe for ink is almost identical to one recommended for the re-blacking of Army belts. In the Ordnance Department's Manual of the Rifle Musket, Model 1861, a section in the back is titled "Mr. Dingee's Instructions for Re-blacking Belts". Contained therein is a recipe for black dye. The dye, made of boiled galls and pyrolignite of iron, is practically the recipe for making ink.

Tannic acid is produced by boiled galls, and pyrolignite of iron is ferrous sulfate, a mineral that can found in iron tablets at General Nutrition Center or your local pharmacy. When those two ingredients are mixed, you render a tannish powder. When that powder is put into solution (add water here), it produces a dark and permanent liquid within fifteen minutes. No matter how you slice it, that’s ink. And Mr. Dingee was not so much dying his belt, but inking it.

Copperas, incidentally, is ferrous sulfate. Since ferrous sulfate was something that was not readily available in the South, and particularly hard for Southrons to obtain during the War, the suggestion in The American Frugal Housewife could have indicated that rusty nails or any rusty iron (as Mrs. Childs wrote) would create the needed ferrous sulfate when brewed up in a cast iron container would result in producing all of the copperas (ferrous sulfate) needed. However, we must suppose it was a foregone conclusion to the lady writing in 1833 that the cookware used would be cast iron.

Like a marigold, it can also be topically applied as an antiseptic.

Lemon Pie
Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
Rind (yellow part, grated off) and juice of 2 lemons
Pre-baked pie crust

Mix sugar, eggs , rind, and juice.  Cook in double boiler over simmering water, stirring until thick.  Pour it into pie crusts and bake at 350° until a knife inserted near middle of pie comes out clean.

Ingredients:
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup molasses
1 cup lard
1/2 cup of boiling water
1 spoonful ginger
1 spoonful saleratus (baking soda with impurities)
1 spoonful salt
Flour (enough to roll)

Beat the sugar, lard, molasses, saleratus and ginger together. Pour on the boiling water and mix in the flour. Roll the resulting dough into a layer about 3/4" thick and cut out the cookies with a round cutter. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at between 375° and 400°.

Ingredients:
20 gallons spring water
15 pounds white granulated sugar
1/2 bucket dried, cracked, or whole corn (the same as you find in chicken feed)
1 can of Blue Ribbon malt

Add all of the ingredients together and mix thoroughly. Stir often and keep the mixture in a warm place and it will soon start to work. Just before it stops working (when it gets a lacy bubble on top), put it in the "can" to cook. As it begins to boil it, the ‘shine will come out the end of the copper condensing coil. Put the jug under the condenser spout to collect the run.