Hardtack

Etymology

The name comes from "tack," British sailor slang for food. The Oxford English Dictionary records the earliest use of the term in 1830. Other names include brewis, cabin bread, pilot bread, sea biscuit, soda crackers, sea bread, ship's biscuit, and pejoratively dog biscuits, molar breakers, sheet iron, tooth dullers, weevil hardtack, Panzerplatten, and worm castles. Australian and New Zealand military personnel called them ANZAC wafers.

History

Egyptian sailors carried a flat brittle millet bread called dhourra cake. Ancient Rome had a cracker called bucellatum. King Richard I of England took "biskit of muslin" on the Third Crusade, a mix of barley, bean flour, and rye. The more refined captain's biscuit used finer flour.

Because hardtack was baked hard, it could stay intact for years if kept dry. For long voyages it was baked four times and prepared six months before sailing. Dry hardtack is dense and virtually inedible; troops usually dampened or crushed it. When James VI and I sailed to Norway in October 1589, his provisions included 15,000 "bisquit baiks."

In 1665 Samuel Pepys regularized naval victualling to include one pound daily of good wheaten biscuit. By at least 1731, naval regulation rationed each sailor 1 lb of biscuit per day. The Pilgrims used hardtack on their 1620 voyage, struggling with insect infestation and needing to dip it in water. From the late 1700s, crumbled hardtack was a key thickener in New England seafood chowders.

Modern use

Commercially available hardtack provides significant food energy in a small, durable package. Ma Bo noted hardtack as a staple for Chinese hard-labor workers in Inner Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution. It was a staple for military servicemen in Japan and South Korea into the late 20th century, known as Kanpan in Japan and geonbbang in South Korea, meaning 'dry bread,' and still sold as a snack. Canned kanpan is distributed in Japan as emergency rations for disasters.

A harder variety called Katapan is a regional specialty in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan. In Korea, geonppang mixed with byulsatang (star candy) is a popular snack. Hardtack, baked with or without fat, was and remains a staple in Russian military rations, especially in the Navy; infantry preferred simple dried bread. Called galeta in Russian, it is usually somewhat softer and more crumbly, as most Russian varieties include fat or shortening, making them closer to saltine crackers.

One variety, khlyebtsy armyeyskiye, is included in Russian military rations, and other brands are popular among campers and the general populace. In Genoa, hardtack is a traditional addition to cappon magro, a fish and vegetable salad. In Germany, hardtack is in every military ration, colloquially called Panzerplatten or Panzerkekse. The company that makes them also sells them to the civilian market.

Some soldiers jokingly claim properties such as combining them with shoe polish to create a flammable device, or gluing them onto vehicles for armor. Some soldiers also report that consuming large quantities can hinder the need to defecate for up to three days.