Friday, July 20, 2007

HARRRdtack!!!

I took the first step towards my escapade and filled both pockets of my coat with biscuit.

I was a fool, if you like, and certainly I was going to do a foolish, over-bold act; but I was determined to do it with all the precautions in my power. These biscuits, should anything befall me, would keep me, at least, from starving till far on in the next day. -Treasure Island



Aye, the sea-biscuit. A thick conglomeration of flour, salt, water, and weevils that propelled the seafarers of antiquity to plunder and glory. "Bread" tough enough to survive voyages around the world, so imperishable that samples hundreds of years old have survived to the present day. Simple enough to knock together and bake on a worknight, hardtack was an obvious first recipe to tackle.


Flour, salt, water. So simple even Half-Brained Steve can remember it.


Then, some good old repetitive stirring, slowly adding the water. A rousing round of "Pump Shanty" carried me through this task. I may have added too much water, though I was following the listed amounts. This was my first time in a long time slinging dough, and it showed. The recipe recommended a firm dough, and the result at this stage, using all the water, was stringy and wet.


The gloppy mass on the floured deck.


Cover with a wet towel and let stand.


Then, pound for half an hour. The recipe recommends a marline-spike or a belaying pin, but I had to make do with a five-pound weight. Bash flat, fold, repeat. More pump shanty! By the end of the half-hour, I felt like I'd administered a flogging 'round the fleet. The dough was more elastic and closer to where I felt it should be, due to judicious application of flour to the plastic wrap and board in order to avoid the dough becoming irretrievably glued to the wood.



Judicious application of a rolling pin resulted in a more or less 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Cut into "squares" and pricked with a fork, the dough yielded...


...the ugliest biscuits known to man. The dough reglued itself after I sliced through it, and the resulting struggle to re-form the rectangles became a little more like amoebas. I also may have overestimated how thick a half-inch is--with results that shall be seen. Into the oven the biscuits went for an hour.


The biscuits actually tasted quite good straight out of the oven. They were still hot and a little moist on the inside, with a pleasant, rocklike heft. Not a lot of character, but much, much better than I was expecting, with a nutty contrast between soft center and chewy crust. Sort of like a bagel, really. Maybe I made them too thick? Definitely not the rock-hard biscuit of legend. Interestingly, though there was no rising agent included, the repeated beating and folding created an artificial mechanical substitute for leavening, creating small air bubbles in the biscuit.


So, a pleasant surprise, but still not the authentic hardtack I was looking for. Left out overnight, the hardtack toughened up a surprising amount, enough to deal a surprising wrench to my jaw when I bit in, got stuck, and tried to tear a piece off. Now that' s what we're looking for! But the inside was still disappointingly somewhat moist. A different recipe online recommended a second baking step for four hours at 200 degrees F, and three are in the oven for a second turn now. I'll also try leaving the biscuits out longer to see if they dry out any more. As it is, though, I'll probably have to make a second batch for the lobscouse, so we'll have another round with the hardtack soon enough.

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