Hard Tack(from grammas volunteer hours at the historical society)

 Hardtack

Gramma and Grandpa put in hours upon hours at the local historical society/ museum

The museum hosted school groups for field trips and one of the things they needed was Hardtack.  Gramma would make batches and batches of hard tack for the museum programs.

Here is the recipe she used:

Hardtack

• preheat oven to 365 degrees(the typed recipe said 375 but she had crossed that off and wrote 365) 
• Combine water adding as much as 2 cups, with 4 cups flour and 4 tsps salt.  Gradually adding the water will keep the mixture from becoming too sticky.  Knead thoroughly.  It should feel elastic-like when complete.  If too sticky, add more flour.
• Flour a surface fro rolling out the mixture.  Roll out into a rectangular shape until roughly 1/2 inch in thickness.
• Cut the hardtack dough into squares.  A pizza cutter works well for this.  Hardtack came in various sizes, depending on the company that manufactured it, but it typically was small enough to fit into one's pockets. (For our school programs, 3/4 inch pieces would be good so students can put them into their mouths without having to bite.)
• Take a fork and make holes in dough, creating a look similar to today's saltines.  Flip each hardtack over and make holes in the other side as well.
• Put the dough on a cookie sheet.  Do not grease the cookie sheet(I think gramma used parchment paper).  Bake the hardtack 30  minutes)(gramma wrote 25 minutes in here, flip and cook another half hour(gramma wrote 25 minutes in here)
• If not fresh, the hardtack should be difficult to break  Oftentimes hardtack was crumbled into coffee so it could be eaten.

there was a website listed on the page but I couldn't find it here is one that is probably similar link

grammas hardtack looked kinda like this but they were very small squares smaller than 1 inch square