Talk:Hardtack/Archive 1

Modern Use

i don't think that 3 paragraphs are required to describe how it is used in alaska, and i suspect that all 3 of those were written by 1 alaskan.

perhaps some of it should be taken out...

66.58.134.253 (talk) 23:17, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Sailor Boy Pilot Bread

My family has been eating the aforementioned product for generations. It's a softer version of hardtack, more like a huge Ritz/Saltine cracker. I think this information and photos would be useful. The only trouble is I can't find the manufacturer's web site or any distributers. Any ideas? --Digitalgadget 01:41, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

I don't think it ought to distract with a picture, but I'm sure there's a paragraph you could put in under "usage today" about your softer hard tack, just be careful not to contradict anything.D. Farr 06:46, 20 March 2007 (UTC)

Article Merge

Previously there were two articles, this one ("Hardtack") and also "Hard tack." It seems that "hardtack" is more common usage, so I merged and redirected the article at "hard tack" here. Here is the history from "Hard tack" (link):

    * (cur) (last)  00:22, 20 Dec 2004 NTK (redirecting to hardtack, merged the content)
    * (cur) (last) 15:47, 19 Aug 2004 Xezbeth
    * (cur) (last) 08:54, 21 Jul 2004 Gareth Owen m (intro sentence)
    * (cur) (last) 09:10, 20 May 2004 Gentgeen (removed recipe, added link to recipe's new home in wikibooks)
    * (cur) (last) 20:36, 30 Mar 2004 Bevo
    * (cur) (last) 03:32, 13 Mar 2004 Zoicon5 m
    * (cur) (last) 09:17, 7 Mar 2004 Dale Arnett
    * (cur) (last) 20:17, 10 Dec 2003 TheLight m (Added some wiki links)
    * (cur) (last) 18:46, 10 Dec 2003 TheLight m
    * (cur) (last) 05:45, 10 Dec 2003 TheLight
    * (cur) (last) 05:45, 10 Dec 2003 TheLight
    * (cur) (last) 05:44, 10 Dec 2003 TheLight (Added a recipe for Hard Tack)
    * (cur) (last) 23:00, 9 Dec 2003 Rmhermen
    * (cur) (last) 22:58, 9 Dec 2003 Rmhermen (add wiki markup)

NTK 04:03, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Stub

I added a stub tag thinking it could do with a little more specific information.

• History
• Origin
• Flavor
• Current uses (If any)

How long does it last?

Article first says it lasts for months if kept dry, then it says it'll last for years.

Current British biscuits

Can anyone elaborate on the relationship between hardtack and present-day British biscuits, particularly the Rich Tea and Digestive? 217.155.20.163 01:04, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Images

The first image is of very poor quality and the second do with hardtack at all Stenitzer 18:33, 14 January 2007 (UTC) : The second appears to in fact be a picture of a school in India. Oops! - 60.36.46.80 03:10, 17 January 2007 (UTC)\

I took a picture of two kinds of hardtack I baked here at home. Couldn't get the image onto Wikipedia. I meant to solve it, but I forgot about it, so I unintentionally left the picture there! Laughs... D. Farr 21:24, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

finally got the correct second picture on the page. Must have been a rather temporary tech problem. Don't know what to do with the first picture. I could definitly see other history viewing sites as a possiblility to replace the poor first picture with a more...fitting one. D. Farr 00:08, 24 January 2007 (UTC)

Useage today

This section includes quite a few unverified statement (i.e. the number of Civil War re-enactors that use it, students using it as a hard substance, etc.). I would suggest that references be found or this section be removed. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ahpook (talk • contribs) 18:16, 29 January 2007 (UTC).

Yeah, I'd like to know where the "students using it as a hard substance" claim came from too, but the unverified comment of the discarded worm infested hard tack "crawling back" is true, though it wasn't from any particular soldier. It was a common joke used by soldiers of the time to describe the poor condition the hardtack was sometimes in when issued. The full joke was of a soldier in the trenches of Petersburg whose superior officer was chastising him for littering the trench with broken pieces of discarded hardtack and was ordered to clean it up, to which the soldier replied that he tried to throw the wormy hardtack away but "it kept crawling back." Goodoldave 02:19, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Very well. Do not delete it. Since I suppose I cannot be my resource, I will work with a sutler and a recipe website to figure out how much they have been selling and how many have clicked on the hardtack recipe. This may take up to a week- if you can preserve what I wrote below my comment, then you can feel free to delete it. I just don't want to have to write it again. The 'threw it away and it kept crawling back' is true enough an orginal statement, which cannot be cited, but I hear that a song was written with the same words. Maybe someone could share the load and look that up. Try google.D. Farr 08:25, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

For the moment, I edited the paragraphs in question, one to name a re-enacting unit that uses the food, and the other sentence describing students. I put "rock-hard substance" in as a comical reference to credit in class, with the consistancy of the food intwined. I am aware that Wikipedia is not meant for slightly informative jokes, and it's a writing style I will try to break. Writing encyclopedia articles takes a lot out of a narrative kind of guy. I will wait for a response before I put all that effort into contacting sutlers and stuff. D. Farr 08:33, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

I put in a reference to hardtack usage by Civil War reenactors. The reference goes to a reenactment spectator advice page at the Battle of Olustee Web site. A phrase there tells spectators to visit the camps where the reenactors are eating their meals, "Everything from coffee and hardtack to..." This is not exactly the best reference, but can do until someone comes up with something better. Hardtack is so commonly used (and eaten) at Civil War reenactments that finding a reference to its use is a bit like trying to find a reference that people often use their private vehicles to go to work. Hardtack has been a staple of my Civil War living history presentations for over 15 years, and I am a relative newcomer to the hobby. However, as an entomologist with the University of Florida (my day job), I have something very few reenactors have - weevil-infested hardtack. I also have moldy hardtack. Just in case someone reading this hadn't heard it before, we often tell spectators (especially children) that hardtack comes in four flavors - plain, moldy, weevil-infested, and moldy and weevil-infested. This somewhat lame joke helps them to remember hardtack. I have had children tell this back to me a year later when I ask "Do you know how many flavors does hardtack comes in?" at the same or another event. Also, I believe the song being referred to above is "Hardtack Come Again No More." Thomas R. Fasulo (talk) 20:48, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Bad link

On the sea urchin page, it links to this as a sea urchin relative. Clearly it is not. 152.3.113.182 16:04, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Pilot Bread

Why's half the article read like an infomercial for this "Pilot Bread?" 68.230.161.164 (talk) 03:20, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

the "cracker" term

I removed the phrase relating the slang term Cracker to the baking of Hard tac, since I have a) never heard of it, b) know other origins for the term, c) can find no supporting evidence around the web and d) never heard a cracking sound from baking hard tac. Wikipedia itself defines the etymology of Cracker outside of the influence of hard tac. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mainstreetmark (talk • contribs) 19:46, 11 March 2008 (UTC)

Removed this statement

"Japanese also keep pilot bread in their disaster kits. "

It is very vague - is it talking about Japanese Americans, Japanese in Alaska, Japanese soldiers in WW2??? Intranetusa (talk) 23:20, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

Icelandic version

I believe we have something similar here in Iceland, created by the icelandic bisquet company, (icelandic: kexverksmiðjan) Frón:

http://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kexverksmi%C3%B0jan_Fr%C3%B3n

They have products like the over 75 year old (from the beginning of the company), matarkex (en. foodbisquet):

http://www.fronkex.is/vorur_matarkex.htm

and another similar, 50 year old product, mjólkurkex (en. milkbisquet), now in three variates:

http://www.fronkex.is/vorur_mjolkurkex.htm

Just if anyone wanted to add it into the article. The picture on top is very similar to the older product in look and style. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vammlaus (talk • contribs) 01:20, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

MRE cracker--hardtack?

In the military MRE, there is a large, fairly tough cracker that I had always heard described as "hardtack." Does anyone know if this is real hardtack, or just a cracker? I have been unable to find any citation for this.

Oh, if the MRE cracker is hardtack, another nickname would be "John Wayne cracker." Not sure if it's because it's something John Wayne would eat in a Western, or if it's rough and tough like John Wayne, but that's the nickname for it. --76.92.129.131 (talk) 19:01, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Granted I have yet to try authentic hardtack, I will say without a doubt that the cracker part of military MREs is NOT hardtack. I have eaten military and civilian (I am not sure if there is a difference) MREs and the crackers of both are have the consistency of a saltine cracker without the salt; I seriously doubt you could get that kind of edibleness from just flour and salt.

I have never heard of it being referred to it as “Hardtack” or the “John Wayne Cracker” but I can understand why: some people have bad experiences with MREs and the cracker is not brittle as a saltine.--Kevin586 (talk) 18:22, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Hardtack/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

Decent article, but needs more on usages in the past and today and some refs. -- Warfreak 09:35, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Last edited at 09:35, 11 June 2007 (UTC). Substituted at 14:55, 1 May 2016 (UTC)

Pilot Bread

Pilot Bread did not originally refer to bush pilots, but to pilots of ships... It long pre-dates aviation. See the history of Nabisco on this page; http://www.kraftcanada.com/EN/ABOUT/Pages/HistoryofKraft.aspx --BenBurch (talk) 03:24, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Corn/Maize

The article says "Egyptian sailors carried a flat brittle loaf of maize bread", but maize is a new world grain. It wasn't known to the ancient Egyptions. Sflaum (talk) 01:53, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

There is a similar hidden comment in the article about corn, I have clarified that "corn" means the most common grain, but did this within the comment so heres to the writer.75.131.224.220 (talk) 04:43, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

"Hoover lunch" cracker

Herbert Hoover wrote in his memoirs about a special cracker which was invented for the Belgian Relief during World War I and became a part of the so called "Hoover lunch". Is it possible that it was some kind of hardtack?----141.13.170.175 (talk) 18:44, 7 April 2010 (UTC)

Rusk

What's the difference from Rusk? The definition seems to be pretty similar and due to wide variety of both, there is bound to be some connection (e.g. polish "Suchar" is translated to both forms equally.) It would be good if the article listed some similarities/differences. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.150.60.18 (talk) 22:45, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Rusk has a more "open" texture thus it is less dense and mechanically it is more crumble/softer. The mechanical properties of rusk closely resemble a completely dried out piece of toast made of ordinany bread. Hardtack is much more dense and is deliberately made to be very hard and resistant to crumbling. Hardtack is less leavened than rusk. Roger (talk) 08:28, 24 May 2012 (UTC)