I'm reminded of dwarf bread from the Discworld series. It was highly prized by people going on long journeys. Basically because if you ever got hungry enough to try and eat rocks, you could use the bread to grind the rocks into porridge.
It was also used as weaponry, and the Low King of the dwarves of Uberwald was king by the right of the Scone of Stone, dwarf bread that is believed to have first been sat upon by Bh’rian Bloodaxe, first of the Low Kings.
There's a few wonderful scenes about the Dwarfs (and Carrot) getting teary eyed about dwarf bread. I'm sure Pterry was just following Tolkien's lead with "cram".
If only lembas is a thing, I'll just bring that bread to work and I'm set for a month at least, a bite per day during lunch break, saves me 2 dollars per meal.
"He reported his findings to the British Navy who then proceeded to ignore them for 200 years." might be quite possibly the funniest sentence I have ever heard for some reason
It's insane how stupidly stubborn the nobility can be. I'll never forget the story of doctors stubbornly refusing to wash their hands for decades (leading to who knows how many deaths) because "Doctors are gentlemen, and a gentleman's hands are always clean."
@@Eviltwin531 Or the doctor in the 1800's who discovered that washing your hands in a bleach solution before surgery cut down on infection, but was then promptly ignored because it when against medical wisdom of the time.
@@MadJustin7 It was also because bleach is fucking corrosive for your hands, and because doctors at the time were proud to have their hands dirty from the dissection of corpses... yeah, they examined their patients with hands full of corpses germs and juices and were astonished to have so many blood poisonings ^^'
Their diet was SO miserable that I once read an account that said 'and the hard tack was full of weavels, and they were thankful for it' *They actually looked forward to some insects in their diet to break the monotony!*
I read story a prison camp survivor told. They always had a pot of water boiling and they would throw any insect that bit them into the pot to make a daily soup .
Fun fact: William Dampier was also the guy who, on February 2nd 1709 (exactly 312 years ago!), rescued Alexander Selkirk, a sailor who lived for 4 years as a castaway on an uninhabited island, and whose story was the inspiration behind Robinson Crusoe.
@@bookman7409 Interesting! I have a friend with the "gift gift " if you will. You never know when a gift might appear, but it's always perfect. Geek is good. Geek works. 😎
“If they’re too hard and bland for ya, fellas, there’s plenty of seasoned water around to dip it in!” -Me, and the final smartass joke that gets me thrown overboard
Ever sleep in a Hot bunk? Lol, worked some shitty and sandy places but I always got my own bed! Also, If you are a young man or woman in the US that qualifies for service and wants to join I'd suggest that you JOIN THE AIR FORCE. lol, kind of joking but also not. I spent lots of nights either in a shithole or living at Ft. Drum thinking "I shoulda joined the Air Force" lol. One of the greatest things I've taken with me for going on 10 yrs since getting my DD 214 is PATIENCE. I bet a lot of other Vets would agree.
@@chucklebutt4470 i’m planning on becoming an aviator for the US military when I turn 18 so that way when I get out I can become a private pilot. why does everyone say that the Air Force is better than the Navy?
I knew an old guy from Newfoundland that would have me pick up "hard bread" from the fish market for him every time I went to Ottawa. It was like those cheapo dinner rolls you get at the grocery store, but the consistency of a brick. Apparently, you were supposed to boil it with fish. ..... I was never brave enough to try it, but he loved it as a taste of home and was always thrilled to get it, along with a container of loose leaf earl grey tea. Edit: typo corrected.
It's made by the Newfoundland company Purity. It's called hardbread and is served with salt cod as a dish called fish and brewis....sounds like bruise. Purity also makes a similar product called sweetbread which is softer and sweet eaten as is with a cup of tea or coffee.
I feel blessed to know not one, but two historical cooking channels willing to make videos showing me how to make this bread from 300 years ago which nobody at that time wanted to eat.
I know everybody knows this, but I love that we have a specific "patient zero" for stereotypical "pirate talk", and that it's the guy who played Long John Silver in Disney's Treasure Island (1950) imitating his Cornish grandfather.
@@liammckevitt8096 I understand, the stereo typical pirate accent of long John Silver comes from Bath, England... A little coastal area of southern England. Most people think it's just made up... :)
@@Nysvarth Thank you, I tell people about Bath and they either just dismiss me out of hand or try to argue that I'm crazy. And just because a town is 20km/mi in, doesn't mean it's not generally considered coastal. They're close enough to be directly affected by everything from weather to trade coming from the sea. A town doesn't have to be built with the ocean as a border to be "coastal."
I had a dog who, when he was a puppy, won a contest prize of a giant biscuit in the shape of a bone. I realize now it was hard tack because he kept that thing for his whole life, re-hiding it whenever I pulled it out its latest hiding place.
Hello northwest German here. I stumbled upon one of your words for sailor's foods and was astonished over the spelling: Lobscouse. We spell it Labskaus (sounds just like yours) and I have eaten that in the 70s as a regular dish. It contains herring, beef, red beets and (after getting introduced by Prussian King in 18th century) potato mash. I am likely forgetting some ingredients now, it's been a while and I have been a vegetarian since 1984. The red beets make it look very red or purple. It is a really good nutrition provider at sea.
Labskovs (Danish) is made with just potatoes, onion and beef. But everywhere the name pops up it's basically the same: "Irish Stew" with whatever you happen to have.
you were "astonished" that people in a completely different part of the world with its own distinct history use langauge in ways that differ from you and those around you? that's pretty short-sighted imho you should examine what it is about that that "astonishes" you
Having made hardtack as hiking/camping food, I've found that the best way to treat them after cooking is to put them in a container with a large handful of salt per half gallon of container size, then throw that in your car during the summer. Shake it up a bit every so often. The heat inside your car will pull any remaining moisture out, and the salt will absorb it, keeping it from spoiling the hardtack. By the end of the summer, you will have a product so hard it will break your teeth if you're not careful, but it will last forever.
The best thing is to not make it at all. People back then didn't have options. We do. The only reason to make it now is "Look everybody, I made hardtack!"
@Jesse Mathis I made it for fun! I made like, nine pathetic pieces cause I followed a cheap recipe, and while I can't say it was too great, it's decent in coffee and tea after a bit. Would be very useful for emergencies if needed be, but I'd probably stick to a couple thousand boxes of kraft dinner and canned beans! Lmao
@@colemandustun883 No. It sucks, it's useless, it has ZERO nutritional value, it does more harm than good & there are better options absolutely everywhere on Earth. If you need to rely on friggin hardtack, you may as well pack it in.
Here's another fun fact: Proto Indo-European had two words meaning "to fart": *perd- "to fart loudly, like a trumpet" and *pizd- "to fart quietly, like a whistle or hiss".
Once I convinced a friend of mine to try and make hardtack alongside myself to compare. Mine ended up as expected, but his didn’t dehydrate completely so he ended up with a tough, stringy, web-like mass that he aptly named “tuff-tack”. I don’t know the science, but it was so good to eat
Yes anytime I hear the clack lack or the word hardtack that plays in my mind..... I remember one vid he mentioned hardtack with out doing the clip and there seamed to be a bunch of us asking questions like "are you ok, wink left eye if you need help...." LOL I know I left a comment along the lines of "Who is this imposter we need to get a search party to find the real max." LOL
“The dwarf bread was brought out for inspection. But it was miraculous, the dwarf bread. No one ever went hungry when they had some dwarf bread to avoid. You only had to look at it for a moment, and instantly you could think of dozens of things you'd rather eat. Your boots, for example. Mountains. Raw sheep. Your own foot.”
It’s really neat that they independently agreed with the romans that flamingo tongue is good eatin’. I thought it was just one of those extravagant roman things that was just to show your wealth, but it seems like it’s genuinely just a practical way to eat skinny flamingos.
@@Neptunequeen42 My bet is that they're eaten like canapés. The real question is...what did they do with the rest of the flamingo? Would it have been good eating, or not, but the tongue was good enough to make the whole bothersome affair worth it?
Sadly that wasn't the case for the Stellar's sea cow. Poor things got eaten into extinction. It was really sad too, they were a monogamous social species, so there were cases of the surviving mate following ships around for days in the hopes that their mate would come back after the sailors drug them out of the water, and of some repeatedly ramming ships to try and free their mate or another member of their group...
By the sound and color of those things, I think I already ate it before. Or at least the mass-produced, consumer friendly version. They're literally just called biscuits (or my family calls them that bc it just says "BISCUITS" on the package). Although they are flavored with some vanilla and lemon, and cut into rectangles, they're as dry as dirt. We have them with mate, which is a tea with extra steps. I may try to replicate this recipie with the added flavors, bc they're expensive as hell
youre supposed to soak hard tack. where im from its still apart of our traditional dishes, served with salt cod, small bits of crispy fried pork fat called scruncheons, and potato and onion if you like. makes for a delicious meal called fish and brewis
@@leesweets4110 newfoundland. a big island off the east coast of canada, it used to be a country of its own up until like the 40s when it joined canada. but youre not wrong to say irish, youre pretty close
@@ixxxxxxx I know where newfoundland is, my friend. Geographically close doesnt count. I based my judgment on the unique words you used in your previous post.
I think you may have the Grog™ wrong. As any pirate of the time will tell you, Grog™ is a secret mixture that contains one or more of the following elements: Kerosene, Propylene Glycol, Artificial Sweeteners, Sulfuric Acid, Rum, Acetone, Battery Acid, red dye#2, SCUMM, Axle grease and/or pepperoni.
Skillygallee is definitely a relative of a dish we have in Newfoundland called "brewis" (pronounced "bruise"), which is small pieces of hard tack soaked in water overnight, then fried in butter or fat along with onions and sometimes salted fat-back pork (scrunchions). Always served with salt cod because it was a staple food on the island for centuries, and slathered in molasses.
@@dontbefatuousjeffrey2494 Newfoundland is in Canada. Stop giving 'murica a bad name. Seriously, fish and molasses? The fuck is wrong with you, Canada?
Apparently, something like hard tack (twice baked for max dryness) was a staple for Italian fishermen. They would dip it in the seawater to soften it and give it flavor. But to do that in a navy ship, you'd probably have to lower the hardtack with a pulley or something. Those ships were huge.
Not ALL of them. Compare a photo of HMS Victory, a three-decker ship of the line to a single-deck sloop-of-war, or a 28-gun frigate, and you'll see what I mean
I need clarification, because back in the time period lobsters were a garbage animal that poor people had ready access to in abundance. I assume your intent was to say you splurge one week, and have to boot strap it the other, but in context it would be roughly equivalent to living off instant ramen and off-brand hot dogs.
@@ccggenius splurge week 1. Eat ramen the rest of the month. Though that is a great justification. "I'm just keeping in touch with the working class of a bygone era"
Lobscouse (or Labskaus as we say) actually is pretty famous here in northern germany though I think the recipes differ nowadays compared to 18th/19th century cooking. It basically consist of meat mixed with potatoes which is mashed, spiced with butter and salt to your liking. Depending on the region, one does usually eat it together with pickled cucumbers, red beetroot, pickled herring, fried eggs and/or black bread. Though I guess on long journeys across the sea, hard tag is to be prefered.
"There is still hardtack from the civil war and a guy on the internet eats it" You can go ahead and call Steve out, we all know who you're talking about
A few years ago I made a batch of hardtack for my American History class and my teacher was simply ecstatic. Also made several other Civil War era dishes like Sally Lunn and homemade preserves.
Between Townsend with his nutmeg, Chef John from Food Wishes with his cayenne pepper, and Guga with his Guga Rub (or even his basic SPG mixture), we have a combination of spices that I wonder how well they would play together.
I was once given a peice of hardtack on a feild trip andmy class mates threw thiers away but I kept my hardtack bc I genuinely liked it it should be noted I chewed on bones as a kid
@@useraccount333 Me too. My father frequently joked about me not leaving anything for the dogs to eat due to my habit of chewing off the cartilages, ligaments, and some stock bunch of fat, marrow and blood vessels whenever we had meat...
The drink made from rum, water, lime and sugar is currently known in the cocktail world as a 'Rum Tea Punch'. Any bartender worth his salt will know this drink, and it's origin which you described perfectly.
I grew up in the arctic Inupiat village of Barrow Alaska, it was my understanding that hardtack came to Barrow with the whalers and with them they brought a form of cracker made by FFV called Sailor Boy, this is still to this day one of the natives and my favorite foods. Spread with butter, peanut butter, and many other spreads. This kept me happy while hunting, camping and just for a plain simple snack.
Generically called 'pilot bread,' it's a sort of tender hardtack. Sailor Boy is just about the last maker there is. The stuff is much favored for stocking seasonal cabins up there in the Great White North. Tastes just like oyster crackers. Used to get it at the Winco.
When I visited Newfoundland, I had this dish called Fish and Brewis (“brews”) that was salt cod and hard tack cooked together in rendered pork fat and served with scrunchions (crispy pork cracklings). The Canadian province has a long nautical history, and this dish will keep you warm and your belly filled for hours!
woah i am glad to see this reply! i love fish and brewis, hardtack is a common part of traditional food here in newfoundland! you can buy it in the supermarket
14:57 I don't know why, but seeing Max holding a giant manatee plush while sternly declaring he'd rather resort to cannibalism than eat one made me giggle. Also, I'm very impressed with his Pokemon plushie collection.
Yes and you can thank your lucky stars your living in this time vs the time described in this video since people then had no problems killing endangered species unlike now.
@@serenitymoon825 Also cool on you and really tells a difference of the times now vs the times described in that video or the past since back then people would really have no qualms of killing and eating animals on the endangered list like sea cows and whales.
@@amandacarr4633 Yeah and also I can see this used and prepared in the recent conflict of Ukraine vs Russia considering how bad the situation is there now. Though more likely it could be used as rocks against invading Russian soldiers along with Molotov Cocktails maybe no surprise considering how hard this stuff was and really nuts given it's history.
Thank you so much for this video and all the work you do for your channel and viewers. I randomly found your channel this week and I was so delighted that there are so many other food historians out there!! I’ve been really sick the last few days and watching your vids in particular makes me smile and forget about the pain. Thank you for sharing your kind light!
I think the most unsettling of all its nicknames is definitely "worm castles" because of what that implies about them... Imagine you're about to chow down on something they call a "worm castle"
I'm more concerned about how in the world worms manage to eat through these things. If its hard enough to break human teeth then how in the world do worms break this down without snapping off their mandibles?
Fun fact, way back, both on the water and land, it was common practice (though not needed) to wait until dark to eat hartack because when they ate it in the dark, they couldn't see the maggots and simply assumed they werent there, and they would soak them in water to soften the bread and drown any bugs, then eat it quickly and with as little chewing as possible all the while pretending it was clean bread with no extra protein added in
@@joshuakim5240 If I'm remembering right, maggots can secrete digestive enzymes to help break down food while they're eating into it, kinda like we do with spit, just more potent. They're neat little critters.
@@joshuakim5240 Maybe they will soften up the bread like the Italians let maggots eat through their cheese to give it that texture and flavor they like
Fun food fact! The term “Buccaneer” comes from the French “Boucan” which refers to a style of preserving meat common among the hunters of the Caribbean in the 17th and 18th C.
So hear me out, make some ginger syrup and use two Oz. Of it instead of brown sugar (or whatever you already use) and one egg white, then give it a dry shake then wet and pour over ice
While watching this I had to try Grog, which I had much heard about but never tasted. I probably used a higher quality rum, but at least it was a very old recipe called Bumbu a craft rum from a recipe of the 1700's. The Grog was more palatable than I expected it to be, but a pinch of sugar and a little lime did improve it. Thanks that was interesting.
'week 3: still a couple teeth left. proceeding to gnaw - success! i chipped off a piece! oh wait i just chipped a tooth. oh well. onwards and upwards dear friends.'
I had hardtack in middle school thanks to a particularly involved history teacher during our lessons of the Civil War..you couldn't PAY me to eat that stuff again without something to soak it in or turn it into a batter with..ESPECIALLY now..back then I had all my real teeth..now all my top teeth are one big dental implant..that crud would shatter the thing.
I loved your little reference to lobscouse. I'm from Liverpool, England (hometown of the Beatles) and if there is one dish that's iconic to our city it's Scouse. So much so that in the UK, people from Liverpool are known as Scousers (said like s-cow-sers). We are a port city and for hundreds of years we were one of Britains largest ports moving goods between Africa, America and the West Indies. With such a huge influx of ships and sailors, lobscouse was adopted by the city and because we shorten everything we say, lobscouse just became known as Scouse. I make mine with lamb neck (it always has to be lamb neck as that's how my Nan taught me to make it) carrots, potatoes, onions, rosemary, sage, S&P and beef stock. It's also not a true Scouse unless you have some picked beetroot or cabbage on the side. Now we're into the winter months we make a big pot each week. Love your channel and thanks for taking the time and effort to make such great content for us. 👍🏴
Thanks for explaining the pronunciation of the word Scouser. I remember living in the UK for a semester and occasionally being confused by the pronunciation of certain words. One of my professors thought I was an idiot because he kept telling me to "hit the Zed key" when he was teaching us how to edit video and I had no freaking clue what a Zed key was because we pronounce Z in a different way in the US. When he finally pointed at it and I went "Oh! Zee!" He said, "Yes! Zed! Zee!" and he literally threw back his head and eye rolled .
I haven't eaten scouse in decades, in fact I forgot all about it, until I read your comment. We had it at least once a week when I was a kid, and it was delicious. My family used beef, not lamb, but I suppose you can use whatever you like.
I’ve been delving into the deeps of your infotainment, I very much appreciate your attention to detail and dedication. Moreover, I do appreciate your Pokémon in company.
i, a teenager, have been in love with sea shanties and sailing culture for 6 years now. Seeing my peers make a trend out of it with 2 songs makes me feel like they're... ...pirating it all
In keeping with the naming convention of the Hardtack line, Grog was the name of Seabiscuit's identical half-brother and was super slow. If you ever read the book which I recommend as it's meticulously researched and quite amusing, you'd enjoy the bits about the trainer's hilarious tactics using Grog to deflect any attention and stress on Seabiscuit. Probably most surviving, non-running photos of Seabiscuit are actually of Grog. He even did Seabiscuit's closely monitored pre-race training runs with Grog so Seabiscuit could train in peace during off-hours since a registered pratice session often drew large crowds.
This episode reminds me of the one time I accidentally made gingerbread hardtack. I wanted the cookies to brown more, so I left them a little (a lot) longer in the oven. The resulting cookies could have been used to construct a real house. They were still delicious but needed to be dipped into tea or something to avoid a painful trip to the dentist.
Japan has a very similar biscuit called Katayaki. They’re still sold in traditional snack shops. They look like silver dollar pancakes but they’re hard as rocks. Katayaki are so hard that people often use hammers to break them up first.
That's something that's hard to imagine and also though I could be wrong but I can see this type of biscuit used in the current Ukraine Russia War considering how that conflict is going.
It looks like you've made a particularly flavorless version of zweiback (like biscuit, meaning twice baked.) Also, convalescing sailors often had their diets limited to pap, ship's biscuit crumbled (or maybe chiseled) into water, allowed to soften, and crushed to a watery pulp. If a sailor were really laid up, one of his mates would actually spoon feed him as well as make the pap. richard -- "Them as can do has to do for them as can't. And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices.” - Granny Aching Terry Pratchett. The Wee Free Men
The year is 2521. "Our research has discovered that pirates in the 21st century used to subsist on nothing more than something called Mountain Dew and Doritos. The recipes of which have been lost to history."
I think Townsends even mentioned this in his video: most of the time ship cooks would crush and grind up biscuits back into something resembling a flour and use that to bake bread or thicken stews. Eating raw biscuits was typically a last resort thing.
I grew up in a fishing village in southeastern Nova Scotia and ate hard tack a few times. We also had a dish called Solomon Gundy which is raw herring and slices of onion pickled together
How *much* of it is left? I would think such a historically significant, extremely limited supply, item would be something to keep, rather than eating. I could see once, but the way it was phrased, 'a guy who EATS' seems to imply that it's a hobby, not a one time thing...
@@Amcsae It was a 1-time thing, normally he eats rations that were made in the 20th Century, not the 19th. But the video he made of him taste-testing it is infinitely more valuable as a historical document than a dusty chunk of hardtack sitting in a museum behind glass.
@@Raskolnikov70i agree that recording will always exist. Plus it's not hard to replicate the food of that time. Sure maybe it won't be exactly the same but... No one's going to eat it. And no one besides Steve will know the "original" taste.
Small curiosity. Current Polish and Lithuanian military rations does include hardtack-like biscuits. They are called "Suchary Specjalne SU-1/2", and are jokingly called by the soldiers "panzerwaffles". And they are indeed hard AF.
Burgoo, loblolly, lobscouse, skillygalee, dandyfunk, salmagundy Gosh, those names. I guess they had to figure out how to make _something_ about being shipboard in those days fun and whimsical.
I grew up in Korea, where locals developed a taste for mini hardtack from US Army rations. I remember eating some as a child, and you basically had to let it soften in your mouth for several minutes before chewing…
Your brain is rapidly growing and changing, especially your prefrontal cortex, so it truly is harder to make decisions and choices, and to determine the possible outcomes of those choices.
in southeast Michigan we have a living history museum called Greenfield village, and they have a late 1700s/early 1800s tavern that does their best to make period accurate meals with the food they grow on premises, and they serve salmagundi. theirs is more like a charcuterie: some sausage or salami slices, pickled vegetables (usually onions and something else, I love their pickled black eyed peas for example) with mustard and pickled eggs. excellent stuff
I love your channel. You mentioned making the channel better... and I want to say that, not only is the content wonderful, the music, intro and edits all seem closer to professional than amateurish. You've done an exemplary job, sir. I am impressed.
@@chronicawareness9986 Excellent point. So I don't know if you know Christine McConnell, but she is an incredible "maker" (though the term doesn't even come close to encapsulating all she does), and she had a series on Netflix for a season. It was dropped after that first season, and she was pretty upset about it. Well, she came back to TH-cam and created a Patreon, and she's in a FAR better place for it. Though I believe Netflix is a pretty lax company in terms of exerting creative control over their projects, I think building a fan base here might be more Max's style.
Interestingly, when I read The Lord of the Rings, the description of lembas reminded me of my father's German Stollen bread recipe. The cognac used to marinate the dried fruit makes the dough raise less but keep longer and the refined sugar coat also helps. Lembas is supposed to be delicious, laborious to make, feed well and keep long without spoiling. Properly made and aged Stollen will keep for months, is dense, nutritious and delicious. We used to age my father's Stollen for a month, encased in clingwrap. Once we couldn't wait and opened it before even two weeks were over. It just wasn't as tasty.
We used to eat hardtack and salt pork back in my reenacting days. I loved the stuff. Even today, now and then, I find myself craving some brick bread and sodium swine. It does a body good.
ah, dwarf battle bread. the stuff that keeps you going on a hard voyage, going in order to find anything at all else to eat. Also finds use as an impromptu projectile weapon, firestarter, or seat.
In the Netherlands we still eat sea biscuits for birthdays, with butter and candied anise seeds. A side effect of this is that if you survive it, you know you are worthy of living for another year. It is really effective for population control.
I kind of like the flavor of anise and licorice. There is a candy in some Icelandic countries that is literally made out of licorice and tar. People used the tar to seal things such as their ships and they had developed a taste for it too and made candy out of it!
@@TastingHistory it's a different kind of biscuit though. it's leavened bread that is dried. It has a crumbly texture. So it's not so hard you can murder someone with it XD
@@mione3690 Greece and Turkey both have versions of leavened but hard-as-rock dried wheat and/or rye biscuits that are obviously made because they keep forever. But they aren’t meant to be eaten as is; you dunk them in water and then let them sit to soften up for 15 minutes or so first. Then they put oil, lemon, tomatoes and other things on, like a messy heap-o-sandwich.
Check out the Tasting History Discord at discord.gg/d7nbEpy
_Gone, gone, TH-camr bland_
_Arise the patron Etrigan!_
@@lezardvaleth2304 hey Max it’s my guy from
Valkyrie Profile
Woo-hoo! Can't wait to get into this one.
Sr. Your hands are amazing.
It's like alabaster or white marble.
@@chanceDdog2009 I’m very pale
If you mentioned Townsends a third time he would be summoned and bless all your dishes with Nutmeg
WE CAN ONLY HOPE
Savor the tastes and aroma of the 18th century baby
Freshly ground
Haha
On the one hand, this recipe calls for no nutmeg, almost forbids it. On the other hand... There's Jon Townsend.
“Ship’s biscuits” sounds like an old-timey exclamation that a wholesome pirate would make. Like, “Ship’s biscuits, where’s me peg leg got to?! Arr!”
A fair curse considering their properties.
That sounds so much like a curse I think I'll start using it.
Aye captn!
Look! Do i see right with me eye!?
*_SHIPS BISCUITS... ITS ME TREASURE!_*
Sounds like something Dr. McCoy might say.
🤣
I'm reminded of dwarf bread from the Discworld series. It was highly prized by people going on long journeys. Basically because if you ever got hungry enough to try and eat rocks, you could use the bread to grind the rocks into porridge.
It was also used as weaponry, and the Low King of the dwarves of Uberwald was king by the right of the Scone of Stone, dwarf bread that is believed to have first been sat upon by Bh’rian Bloodaxe, first of the Low Kings.
gooood reference! :D
And if the rocks aren't appetizing enough, you can take one look at the bread and go "you know, I'll rather eat the rocks"
Wow. And I thought I was a nerd! I love it!!! Well met, friend. 🐢
There's a few wonderful scenes about the Dwarfs (and Carrot) getting teary eyed about dwarf bread. I'm sure Pterry was just following Tolkien's lead with "cram".
I'm betting that lembas and cram were what Tolkien *wished* hardtack was: tasty and nutritious.
Can I have a lembas recipe
@seronymus There's one online, "Lembas Bread 'Authentic Elvish' " which sounds delicious.
Now I want to try making some. . .
If only lembas is a thing, I'll just bring that bread to work and I'm set for a month at least, a bite per day during lunch break, saves me 2 dollars per meal.
And juicy sweet.
_Cram_ -- ". . . said to be sustaining, and certainly not entertaining, except as chewing exercise."
"He reported his findings to the British Navy who then proceeded to ignore them for 200 years." might be quite possibly the funniest sentence I have ever heard for some reason
🤣 and it’s true
It's insane how stupidly stubborn the nobility can be. I'll never forget the story of doctors stubbornly refusing to wash their hands for decades (leading to who knows how many deaths) because "Doctors are gentlemen, and a gentleman's hands are always clean."
@@Eviltwin531 Or the doctor in the 1800's who discovered that washing your hands in a bleach solution before surgery cut down on infection, but was then promptly ignored because it when against medical wisdom of the time.
It wasn't submitted on the correct forms. Navies have standards... and also float on red tape not water.
@@MadJustin7 It was also because bleach is fucking corrosive for your hands, and because doctors at the time were proud to have their hands dirty from the dissection of corpses... yeah, they examined their patients with hands full of corpses germs and juices and were astonished to have so many blood poisonings ^^'
"The Lusty Argonian maid" a must for any Pirates traveling Tamriel.
Just don't eat her, no matter how fleshy she may be...
No >:(
"The 'Fleshy' Argonian Maid" has a more narrow audience
@@victorkreig6089 yes :)
Plenty of time, my sweet. Plenty of time.
"someone on the internet eats hard tack from the civil war' Ah yes, Steve1989 back at it again giving himself food poisoning for us, I see.
Let's get this on a tray.
@@katiewray2525 Nice!
I love the taste of shoe.
Nice hiss!
Haha Steve!
17:14 And thus began the most entertaining cutaway in this channel.
I'm catching up on old videos and watching the birth of the meme!
Hardtack *clack clack*
facts lol
Clack Clack!
I've seen the reference so many times and this finally came on my feed 😂😂
Their diet was SO miserable that I once read an account that said 'and the hard tack was full of weavels, and they were thankful for it'
*They actually looked forward to some insects in their diet to break the monotony!*
Protein
I read story a prison camp survivor told.
They always had a pot of water boiling and they would throw any insect that bit them into the pot to make a daily soup .
Extra protein. Lol
holy that is bad
@@xentixs Not really, boiled insects, its protein, its beef in a different form..
It was Steve. Steve ate the hundred years old hardtack.
Yes!
@@TastingHistory His videos are so interesting! They always make me think about the connection between food and history and I love it
he also ate the 120 year old boer war beef *hork*
He even got it out onto a tray. Nice.
I love that video, Steve is a fun guy to watch eat old ass Mre's
"They watered down the rum."
4 parts water. 1 part rum.
Me: Sounds like they spiked the water.
Kinda important on a ship because god knows what has been growing in that water.
@@AnhTrieu90 nice. My worms come pre drunk.
That and water down the alcohol so you don't have a bunch of drunk sailors.
@@spiderfan1974 what do you even do with those guys?
@@kiroat something something rusty razor, something something captain's daughter ... on the tip of my tongue
"theres a guy on the internet who eats it"
lets get this on to a tray
The only downside is hard tack doesn't come with a good powdered sports drink
Nice
Or a vintage 5-pack of Chesterfields.
Nice hiss!
Steve is a legend lol.
Fun fact: William Dampier was also the guy who, on February 2nd 1709 (exactly 312 years ago!), rescued Alexander Selkirk, a sailor who lived for 4 years as a castaway on an uninhabited island, and whose story was the inspiration behind Robinson Crusoe.
Wow! And this is February 2nd ! Amazing!
And the 1820 epic poem Castaway, too?
I love the esoteric knowledge that surfaces on this channel!
@@bookman7409 I can't believe I didn't notice that! How embarrassing.
@@bookman7409 Interesting! I have a friend with the "gift gift " if you will. You never know when a gift might appear, but it's always perfect. Geek is good. Geek works. 😎
“If they’re too hard and bland for ya, fellas, there’s plenty of seasoned water around to dip it in!” -Me, and the final smartass joke that gets me thrown overboard
Youd be fun on a ship for the fisrt couple days. After, Id say youd be right about going overboard
"being on a ship, you don't add salt because everything is salty."
Me, Navy Veteran: yes.
Ever sleep in a Hot bunk? Lol, worked some shitty and sandy places but I always got my own bed!
Also, If you are a young man or woman in the US that qualifies for service and wants to join I'd suggest that you JOIN THE AIR FORCE. lol, kind of joking but also not. I spent lots of nights either in a shithole or living at Ft. Drum thinking "I shoulda joined the Air Force" lol.
One of the greatest things I've taken with me for going on 10 yrs since getting my DD 214 is PATIENCE. I bet a lot of other Vets would agree.
@@chucklebutt4470 My air force veteran dad would agree with that point XD
So as a landlubber away from the sea, I should add a bit of salt to recreate the naval experience
@@katleman I'd say more than a bit. Like, enough salt WHILE COOKING that you taste it. then have salt on the table just in case.
@@chucklebutt4470 i’m planning on becoming an aviator for the US military when I turn 18 so that way when I get out I can become a private pilot. why does everyone say that the Air Force is better than the Navy?
I knew an old guy from Newfoundland that would have me pick up "hard bread" from the fish market for him every time I went to Ottawa. It was like those cheapo dinner rolls you get at the grocery store, but the consistency of a brick. Apparently, you were supposed to boil it with fish. ..... I was never brave enough to try it, but he loved it as a taste of home and was always thrilled to get it, along with a container of loose leaf earl grey tea.
Edit: typo corrected.
It's made by the Newfoundland company Purity. It's called hardbread and is served with salt cod as a dish called fish and brewis....sounds like bruise. Purity also makes a similar product called sweetbread which is softer and sweet eaten as is with a cup of tea or coffee.
@@kjonitaI was just gonna say that it sounded like Brewis
I feel blessed to know not one, but two historical cooking channels willing to make videos showing me how to make this bread from 300 years ago which nobody at that time wanted to eat.
“Your brain is as dry as the remainder biscuit after voyage.” - From As You Like It by Shakespeare
I like it with lime marmalade and black tea.
I know everybody knows this, but I love that we have a specific "patient zero" for stereotypical "pirate talk", and that it's the guy who played Long John Silver in Disney's Treasure Island (1950) imitating his Cornish grandfather.
Actually, the origin of "pirate talk" comes from a small area in the south of England, Bath. The dialect comes from there... :)
@@MtnBadgerhe means its use as a "pirate" dialect
@@liammckevitt8096
I understand, the stereo typical pirate accent of long John Silver comes from Bath, England... A little coastal area of southern England. Most people think it's just made up... :)
@@MtnBadger Most people would be correct in thinking the coastal town of Bath is made up, since the real one is about 20km inland.
@@Nysvarth
Thank you, I tell people about Bath and they either just dismiss me out of hand or try to argue that I'm crazy.
And just because a town is 20km/mi in, doesn't mean it's not generally considered coastal. They're close enough to be directly affected by everything from weather to trade coming from the sea. A town doesn't have to be built with the ocean as a border to be "coastal."
I had a dog who, when he was a puppy, won a contest prize of a giant biscuit in the shape of a bone. I realize now it was hard tack because he kept that thing for his whole life, re-hiding it whenever I pulled it out its latest hiding place.
The Pikachu dress as a Team Aqua grunt gives me ✨Pirate vibe✨
It’s the best I could do 🥵
@@KetchupwithMaxandJose you can't convince me that you find a plushie after the idea for the video lol. I think it's the other way round
Team Aqua is totally pirate themed, lol, I say it counts!
Team Aqua is best team
Half of the fun of the videos are to see what Pokemon he will have back there.
There's a guy on the internet who eats it.
He's talking about Steve1989! Nice!
Lets put this out into a tray... nice!
Nice hiss
do I smell a future collab? ! ? ! Maybe? ? huh? huh? huh? Come on!
@@petras8385 oh that would be a goddamn TREASURE
In the words of the man himself "Nice!"
Fun fact: Several cookbooks for soldiers in the Civil war call for grinding the hardtack into a flour for making breads, cakes, and other baked goods.
"I used the bread to make the bread"
@@NovaStorm93 hahahaha
Refried beans and rebaked bread. yum
@@trevthekidd f b t be
@@lifeuncovered6188 what are you smoking?
Hello northwest German here. I stumbled upon one of your words for sailor's foods and was astonished over the spelling: Lobscouse.
We spell it Labskaus (sounds just like yours) and I have eaten that in the 70s as a regular dish. It contains herring, beef, red beets and (after getting introduced by Prussian King in 18th century) potato mash. I am likely forgetting some ingredients now, it's been a while and I have been a vegetarian since 1984.
The red beets make it look very red or purple. It is a really good nutrition provider at sea.
That’s just like George Orwell’s book
Labskovs (Danish) is made with just potatoes, onion and beef. But everywhere the name pops up it's basically the same: "Irish Stew" with whatever you happen to have.
you were "astonished" that people in a completely different part of the world with its own distinct history use langauge in ways that differ from you and those around you? that's pretty short-sighted imho you should examine what it is about that that "astonishes" you
Imma guess that the guy who ate the Civil War hardtack is the guy who eats old MRE stuff.
"Let's get this onto a tray. Nice"
That’s him!
Good old Steve at his best.
My man, Steve!
....every one's man Steve! Haha.
I wouldn't trust anyone who didn't like him. Haha
MRE Steve: “I don’t normally smoke cigarettes, but when I do they’re usually over 50 years old”
steve scares me he got sick twice i think?
Having made hardtack as hiking/camping food, I've found that the best way to treat them after cooking is to put them in a container with a large handful of salt per half gallon of container size, then throw that in your car during the summer. Shake it up a bit every so often. The heat inside your car will pull any remaining moisture out, and the salt will absorb it, keeping it from spoiling the hardtack. By the end of the summer, you will have a product so hard it will break your teeth if you're not careful, but it will last forever.
The best thing is to not make it at all. People back then didn't have options. We do. The only reason to make it now is "Look everybody, I made hardtack!"
@Jesse Mathis I made it for fun! I made like, nine pathetic pieces cause I followed a cheap recipe, and while I can't say it was too great, it's decent in coffee and tea after a bit. Would be very useful for emergencies if needed be, but I'd probably stick to a couple thousand boxes of kraft dinner and canned beans! Lmao
@@proto-geek248 never know when youll need it. plus its always good to keep skills aluve for future generations
@Jesse Mathis yea so stock up on that all but inedible, hard as a rock, cheap bleached wheat flour. Mm mm. I'd rather die of starvation.
@@colemandustun883 No.
It sucks, it's useless, it has ZERO nutritional value, it does more harm than good & there are better options absolutely everywhere on Earth. If you need to rely on friggin hardtack, you may as well pack it in.
Oh God! I never noticed that in Italian "biscotto" means twice cooked. Learning things on my native language today, apparently.
Yes, and here's another one for you.. ricotta means cooked again.
@@ConnieDAgostino And terracotta means baked (cooked) dirt.
Anch'io c'ho messo decisamente più anni del dovuto a farci caso. Oh, well
So does Zwieback 🥰
Here's another fun fact: Proto Indo-European had two words meaning "to fart": *perd- "to fart loudly, like a trumpet" and *pizd- "to fart quietly, like a whistle or hiss".
Once I convinced a friend of mine to try and make hardtack alongside myself to compare. Mine ended up as expected, but his didn’t dehydrate completely so he ended up with a tough, stringy, web-like mass that he aptly named “tuff-tack”. I don’t know the science, but it was so good to eat
"there is a guy on the internet who eats it", our boy steve is getting the reconigtion he deserves
He's so polite, even when something is terrible in one of his rations
Nice!
@@klikboers "It has a really rancid taste... oh, that's off. Yeah that's definitely off. Lemme go in for another bite.."
@@johnr797 He like politely described a Ukrainian ration almost killing him one video
Let's get this out onto a tray. How come Townsends gets mentioned by name but Steve is just a "guy on the internet"?
"Lusty and fleshy" sounds more flattering than fat. If I ever get eaten I would prefer such a description.
It feels like a more unisex "voluptuous".
These days it’s a compliment like thicc lol
Its all a matter of appreciation.
I love Max's dad humour. It feels like sitting down with your dad and talking about old family stories
I love going back to this episode as it’s The beginning of the best running gag of the channel
_Clack clack_
Yes anytime I hear the clack lack or the word hardtack that plays in my mind..... I remember one vid he mentioned hardtack with out doing the clip and there seamed to be a bunch of us asking questions like "are you ok, wink left eye if you need help...." LOL I know I left a comment along the lines of "Who is this imposter we need to get a search party to find the real max." LOL
“The dwarf bread was brought out for inspection. But it was miraculous, the dwarf bread. No one ever went hungry when they had some dwarf bread to avoid. You only had to look at it for a moment, and instantly you could think of dozens of things you'd rather eat. Your boots, for example. Mountains. Raw sheep. Your own foot.”
Now that's some larping, that is! /;p
Just like Mother used to forge...
I'll make some for you, I haven't emptied the catbox in weeks!
RIP Sir Terry Pratchett.
Lmao
It’s really neat that they independently agreed with the romans that flamingo tongue is good eatin’. I thought it was just one of those extravagant roman things that was just to show your wealth, but it seems like it’s genuinely just a practical way to eat skinny flamingos.
Like... How big is a flamingo tongue?
Welp when in rome
@@kramermariav It’s gotta be big enough for a one-person serving, right? Otherwise it wouldn’t be worth it to cut it out
@@Neptunequeen42 My bet is that they're eaten like canapés. The real question is...what did they do with the rest of the flamingo? Would it have been good eating, or not, but the tongue was good enough to make the whole bothersome affair worth it?
Missed opportunity to say "I'd sooner eat a man at sea, than eat a manatee!"
Ah! How hadn’t I heard that?
Wouldn't a man at tea likely have more meat on the bones though?
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.
@@RenaissanceEarCandy As you should - I'd be concerned for your sanity if it was the other way around!
Sadly that wasn't the case for the Stellar's sea cow. Poor things got eaten into extinction. It was really sad too, they were a monogamous social species, so there were cases of the surviving mate following ships around for days in the hopes that their mate would come back after the sailors drug them out of the water, and of some repeatedly ramming ships to try and free their mate or another member of their group...
By the sound and color of those things, I think I already ate it before. Or at least the mass-produced, consumer friendly version. They're literally just called biscuits (or my family calls them that bc it just says "BISCUITS" on the package).
Although they are flavored with some vanilla and lemon, and cut into rectangles, they're as dry as dirt. We have them with mate, which is a tea with extra steps. I may try to replicate this recipie with the added flavors, bc they're expensive as hell
Ahhh so that's why us Australians call alcohol "Grog" lmao
Hi verified account
If you keep in mind most Australia's ancestors arrived in royal navy ships then it does make a lot of sense.
Do you think being groggy in the morning is actually being hungover?
Arizonan here, (or Australia inside the United States)
@@Vacuon wouldn’t be surprised.
I like how he gets teary eyes when he tries to eat that stuff. Good lord, you took a bullet for us.
I wanted to see him gnaw on it... *sigh*
youre supposed to soak hard tack. where im from its still apart of our traditional dishes, served with salt cod, small bits of crispy fried pork fat called scruncheons, and potato and onion if you like. makes for a delicious meal called fish and brewis
@@ixxxxxxx Irish?
@@leesweets4110 newfoundland. a big island off the east coast of canada, it used to be a country of its own up until like the 40s when it joined canada. but youre not wrong to say irish, youre pretty close
@@ixxxxxxx I know where newfoundland is, my friend. Geographically close doesnt count. I based my judgment on the unique words you used in your previous post.
just binged all your vids the other day, this content rocks. keep it up
Yeah me too. And then I was sad there wasnt any more
Same. I also started cooking, and being a History Nerd, I start here.
You again
Hey, you make great content.
Rocks just like the biscuits
I think you may have the Grog™ wrong. As any pirate of the time will tell you, Grog™ is a secret mixture that contains one or more of the following elements: Kerosene, Propylene Glycol, Artificial Sweeteners, Sulfuric Acid, Rum, Acetone, Battery Acid, red dye#2, SCUMM, Axle grease and/or pepperoni.
Sounds more like a Pangalactic Gargleblaster! ;-)
Oo Oo Now tell me about Loom™!
What is that kind of drink, seems like fuel for jet engine.
I prefer root beer. Does wonders against ghosts.
And, if it's not-found-in-nature blue, it probably has some SLUSHO! as well.
Skillygallee is definitely a relative of a dish we have in Newfoundland called "brewis" (pronounced "bruise"), which is small pieces of hard tack soaked in water overnight, then fried in butter or fat along with onions and sometimes salted fat-back pork (scrunchions). Always served with salt cod because it was a staple food on the island for centuries, and slathered in molasses.
I was with you till the molasses...
... then remembered I come from the Land of Vegemite, so no judging
@@dontbefatuousjeffrey2494 Newfoundland is in Canada. Stop giving 'murica a bad name.
Seriously, fish and molasses? The fuck is wrong with you, Canada?
Max: Another region to explore!
@@angolin9352 hey now, sweet and salty is a common flavour combination worldwide! Don't knock it til you try it!
@@angolin9352 Vegemite is from Australia but ok :-D
Apparently, something like hard tack (twice baked for max dryness) was a staple for Italian fishermen. They would dip it in the seawater to soften it and give it flavor. But to do that in a navy ship, you'd probably have to lower the hardtack with a pulley or something. Those ships were huge.
why not just send down a bucket to scoop up a few dips of the sea water?
that seems a more fruitful way of going about it.
Not ALL of them.
Compare a photo of HMS Victory, a three-decker ship of the line to a single-deck sloop-of-war, or a 28-gun frigate, and you'll see what I mean
That sounds disgusting
Lobster last week. Hard Tak this. This is basically what my budgeting looks like too.
I need clarification, because back in the time period lobsters were a garbage animal that poor people had ready access to in abundance. I assume your intent was to say you splurge one week, and have to boot strap it the other, but in context it would be roughly equivalent to living off instant ramen and off-brand hot dogs.
@@ccggenius Both could be apt :)
@@ccggenius splurge week 1. Eat ramen the rest of the month. Though that is a great justification. "I'm just keeping in touch with the working class of a bygone era"
The difficulty of fortnightly/bi-weekly pay schedules! I'm laughing and crying because it's Hardtack week this week. 😔
Lobscouse (or Labskaus as we say) actually is pretty famous here in northern germany though I think the recipes differ nowadays compared to 18th/19th century cooking. It basically consist of meat mixed with potatoes which is mashed, spiced with butter and salt to your liking. Depending on the region, one does usually eat it together with pickled cucumbers, red beetroot, pickled herring, fried eggs and/or black bread. Though I guess on long journeys across the sea, hard tag is to be prefered.
"spiced" with butter and salt. AKA tell me you're white without telling me you're white 🤣🤣
"There is still hardtack from the civil war and a guy on the internet eats it"
You can go ahead and call Steve out, we all know who you're talking about
I couldn’t remember his name 🤣
NGL I was wondering if it was Ashens because he does stuff like that all the time. It sounds like something he'd do.
Andrew Zimmern did too
Steve gets called out by EVERYONE, I swear! :D
@@teresafarley3838 thanks I was trying to remember which show I watched that did and tasted a hard tack recipe.
A few years ago I made a batch of hardtack for my American History class and my teacher was simply ecstatic. Also made several other Civil War era dishes like Sally Lunn and homemade preserves.
While Legolas was eating Lembas Bread, Will Turner had to eat Hardtack 😔
🤣 I forgot he played both roles
@@TastingHistory My favorite high school era snack 🧝♂️🏴☠️
Will Turner(-ed) to hardtack
Between Townsend with his nutmeg, Chef John from Food Wishes with his cayenne pepper, and Guga with his Guga Rub (or even his basic SPG mixture), we have a combination of spices that I wonder how well they would play together.
Yar matey. You forgot the weevils. They be important for texture and protein.
I was once given a peice of hardtack on a feild trip andmy class mates threw thiers away but I kept my hardtack bc I genuinely liked it
it should be noted I chewed on bones as a kid
This man's part vulture
I never chewed bones, but I did like chewing on cartilage and other bits of gristle. It's like meat -flavored gum!
@@useraccount333 Me too. My father frequently joked about me not leaving anything for the dogs to eat due to my habit of chewing off the cartilages, ligaments, and some stock bunch of fat, marrow and blood vessels whenever we had meat...
How large is your jaw?
@@Mariathinking shockingly not large at all, though i can dislocate it to fit my entire fist in my mouth
The drink made from rum, water, lime and sugar is currently known in the cocktail world as a 'Rum Tea Punch'. Any bartender worth his salt will know this drink, and it's origin which you described perfectly.
add some mint and you got a Mojito? ...
Usually we replace water for club soda for most of the cocktails.
I grew up in the arctic Inupiat village of Barrow Alaska, it was my understanding that hardtack came to Barrow with the whalers and with them they brought a form of cracker made by FFV called Sailor Boy, this is still to this day one of the natives and my favorite foods. Spread with butter, peanut butter, and many other spreads. This kept me happy while hunting, camping and just for a plain simple snack.
Generically called 'pilot bread,' it's a sort of tender hardtack. Sailor Boy is just about the last maker there is. The stuff is much favored for stocking seasonal cabins up there in the Great White North.
Tastes just like oyster crackers. Used to get it at the Winco.
More serious comment: I think you'd enjoy Korean fried barley hardtack (건빵). Eat some sugar stars with it and you get a taste of wartime Korea.
I’ll have to try that!
@@TastingHistory I don't think you will enjoy wartime Korea.
@@pointerish Haha!
When I visited Newfoundland, I had this dish called Fish and Brewis (“brews”) that was salt cod and hard tack cooked together in rendered pork fat and served with scrunchions (crispy pork cracklings). The Canadian province has a long nautical history, and this dish will keep you warm and your belly filled for hours!
That sounds awfully close to hellfire stew
woah i am glad to see this reply! i love fish and brewis, hardtack is a common part of traditional food here in newfoundland! you can buy it in the supermarket
14:57 I don't know why, but seeing Max holding a giant manatee plush while sternly declaring he'd rather resort to cannibalism than eat one made me giggle.
Also, I'm very impressed with his Pokemon plushie collection.
As a Florida native, it warmed my heart to hear him declare such love for our sweet sea cows
Yes and you can thank your lucky stars your living in this time vs the time described in this video since people then had no problems killing endangered species unlike now.
@@serenitymoon825 Also cool on you and really tells a difference of the times now vs the times described in that video or the past since back then people would really have no qualms of killing and eating animals on the endangered list like sea cows and whales.
Honestly same he is a treat!
@@amandacarr4633 Yeah and also I can see this used and prepared in the recent conflict of Ukraine vs Russia considering how bad the situation is there now. Though more likely it could be used as rocks against invading Russian soldiers along with Molotov Cocktails maybe no surprise considering how hard this stuff was and really nuts given it's history.
Thank you so much for this video and all the work you do for your channel and viewers. I randomly found your channel this week and I was so delighted that there are so many other food historians out there!! I’ve been really sick the last few days and watching your vids in particular makes me smile and forget about the pain. Thank you for sharing your kind light!
I think the most unsettling of all its nicknames is definitely "worm castles" because of what that implies about them... Imagine you're about to chow down on something they call a "worm castle"
Extra protein
I'm more concerned about how in the world worms manage to eat through these things. If its hard enough to break human teeth then how in the world do worms break this down without snapping off their mandibles?
Fun fact, way back, both on the water and land, it was common practice (though not needed) to wait until dark to eat hartack because when they ate it in the dark, they couldn't see the maggots and simply assumed they werent there, and they would soak them in water to soften the bread and drown any bugs, then eat it quickly and with as little chewing as possible all the while pretending it was clean bread with no extra protein added in
@@joshuakim5240 If I'm remembering right, maggots can secrete digestive enzymes to help break down food while they're eating into it, kinda like we do with spit, just more potent. They're neat little critters.
@@joshuakim5240 Maybe they will soften up the bread like the Italians let maggots eat through their cheese to give it that texture and flavor they like
Fun food fact! The term “Buccaneer” comes from the French “Boucan” which refers to a style of preserving meat common among the hunters of the Caribbean in the 17th and 18th C.
I didn’t know that!
Thats also believed to be the origins of barbeque
Edit: nope. I mixed words, my bad.
@@DH-xw6jp I thought Barbecue came from the Spanish "barbacoa"
@@SonofSethoitae thats the word!
I got the two crossed, my bad.
Boucanier!
Been making grog ever since reading the Patrick O'Brian novels. It is shockingly delightful and refreshing.
Damn sounds like it'll save u a lot of rum
"Jack! You have debauched my Sloth!"
So hear me out, make some ginger syrup and use two Oz. Of it instead of brown sugar (or whatever you already use) and one egg white, then give it a dry shake then wet and pour over ice
While watching this I had to try Grog, which I had much heard about but never tasted. I probably used a higher quality rum, but at least it was a very old recipe called Bumbu a craft rum from a recipe of the 1700's. The Grog was more palatable than I expected it to be, but a pinch of sugar and a little lime did improve it. Thanks that was interesting.
"And there's a guy on the internet who eats it."
I'm picturing a guy who posts weekly videos of himself gnawing on hardtack without progress.
so he's a living squirrel?!
Couldn't be farther from it, he was talking about Steve1989
Steve1989 is a national treasure. If the army had any sense, it would draft him to work in their MRE development department.
'week 3:
still a couple teeth left. proceeding to gnaw -
success! i chipped off a piece! oh wait i just chipped a tooth. oh well. onwards and upwards dear friends.'
Steve MRE, he's great, a legend, he will eat anything, I'm surprised he's not dead at this point.
That hardtack needs more weevils in it! How is one supposed to choose "the lesser of two weevils" if there are none?
🤣
It is said that adding caraway to hardtack repels weevils. Though I think it was more of a continental European practice, not used by the British.
I had hardtack in middle school thanks to a particularly involved history teacher during our lessons of the Civil War..you couldn't PAY me to eat that stuff again without something to soak it in or turn it into a batter with..ESPECIALLY now..back then I had all my real teeth..now all my top teeth are one big dental implant..that crud would shatter the thing.
Another Captain and commander fan...
Weevils are not a bug, they're a feature
I loved your little reference to lobscouse. I'm from Liverpool, England (hometown of the Beatles) and if there is one dish that's iconic to our city it's Scouse. So much so that in the UK, people from Liverpool are known as Scousers (said like s-cow-sers). We are a port city and for hundreds of years we were one of Britains largest ports moving goods between Africa, America and the West Indies. With such a huge influx of ships and sailors, lobscouse was adopted by the city and because we shorten everything we say, lobscouse just became known as Scouse. I make mine with lamb neck (it always has to be lamb neck as that's how my Nan taught me to make it) carrots, potatoes, onions, rosemary, sage, S&P and beef stock. It's also not a true Scouse unless you have some picked beetroot or cabbage on the side. Now we're into the winter months we make a big pot each week. Love your channel and thanks for taking the time and effort to make such great content for us. 👍🏴
Up the reds!
Thanks for explaining the pronunciation of the word Scouser. I remember living in the UK for a semester and occasionally being confused by the pronunciation of certain words. One of my professors thought I was an idiot because he kept telling me to "hit the Zed key" when he was teaching us how to edit video and I had no freaking clue what a Zed key was because we pronounce Z in a different way in the US.
When he finally pointed at it and I went "Oh! Zee!" He said, "Yes! Zed! Zee!" and he literally threw back his head and eye rolled .
I haven't eaten scouse in decades, in fact I forgot all about it, until I read your comment. We had it at least once a week when I was a kid, and it was delicious. My family used beef, not lamb, but I suppose you can use whatever you like.
I’ve been delving into the deeps of your infotainment, I very much appreciate your attention to detail and dedication. Moreover, I do appreciate your Pokémon in company.
Max: "Dont say anything about Ketchup with Max"
José: "Write it in the captions anyway"
That was funny! xD
Mwahaha :D
i, a teenager, have been in love with sea shanties and sailing culture for 6 years now. Seeing my peers make a trend out of it with 2 songs makes me feel like they're...
...pirating it all
oy puns
At least they're being true to the source material
@@thelightgeektastic kinda
@@dracodistortion9447 Lol I meant in that they're being true to pirates by pirating
But what DO you do with a drunken sailor?
I'm gonna have to disagree, "lusty and fleshy" is most definitely a compliment
In keeping with the naming convention of the Hardtack line, Grog was the name of Seabiscuit's identical half-brother and was super slow. If you ever read the book which I recommend as it's meticulously researched and quite amusing, you'd enjoy the bits about the trainer's hilarious tactics using Grog to deflect any attention and stress on Seabiscuit. Probably most surviving, non-running photos of Seabiscuit are actually of Grog. He even did Seabiscuit's closely monitored pre-race training runs with Grog so Seabiscuit could train in peace during off-hours since a registered pratice session often drew large crowds.
*The Pirate Pikachu in the back is killing me.*
😖 his lil hat and shirt awwwww
I just noticed so cute
I love him! I think he's actually supposed to be a team aqua goon from the games iirc
Team Aqua Pikachu was the best one from the line up.
Not Piratchu? Nobody? Really?
I love how my favorite historical food youtubers are starting to mix... First he recognized townsends and now he recognizes steve??? how incredible
He has a Q&A with Townsends on their channel! Virtual visit to the Nutmeg Tavern
Now he needs to get to know Mrs Crocombe at English Heritage.
"Get to know"
First: I'm glad you made the "you're salty" joke for me. Second: you come off as very kneady in this episode.
I keep coming back to this video. It's so awesome and a classic episode.
This episode reminds me of the one time I accidentally made gingerbread hardtack. I wanted the cookies to brown more, so I left them a little (a lot) longer in the oven. The resulting cookies could have been used to construct a real house. They were still delicious but needed to be dipped into tea or something to avoid a painful trip to the dentist.
another advantage is if you make too many you can just leave them till next Christmas
“We’ve had nothing but maggoty bread for three stinking days”
"Yeeeeeaaah! Why can't we have some meat?"
"Wot about dem?? theyre FRESH"
"they, are NOT for EATINg!"
What about their legs? They don't need those!
What is this from? The quote is familiar…
Japan has a very similar biscuit called Katayaki. They’re still sold in traditional snack shops. They look like silver dollar pancakes but they’re hard as rocks. Katayaki are so hard that people often use hammers to break them up first.
"Man I'm hungry, good thing I brought my hammer!"
*loud slamming*
"There we go, delicious!"
I need to put some katayaki in strong coffee
That's something that's hard to imagine and also though I could be wrong but I can see this type of biscuit used in the current Ukraine Russia War considering how that conflict is going.
@@kellychuang8373yes
@@FLMKane WOW that's something also can picture this type of biscuit used as a throwing brick or rock too.
It looks like you've made a particularly flavorless version of zweiback (like biscuit, meaning twice baked.) Also, convalescing sailors often had their diets limited to pap, ship's biscuit crumbled (or maybe chiseled) into water, allowed to soften, and crushed to a watery pulp. If a sailor were really laid up, one of his mates would actually spoon feed him as well as make the pap.
richard
--
"Them as can do has to do for them as can't. And someone has to speak up for them as has no voices.”
- Granny Aching
Terry Pratchett. The Wee Free Men
3:18 steve MRE biting into a 150 year old civil war biscuit: "Wow is that rye?"
"Mmmm that's decadent."
As soon as he said about a guy eating civil war hardtack, I thought of Steve eating Boer war rations.
hah, I was just thinking about him too
@@renegadeace1735 what happened to him? He vanished
"How to Eat Like a Pirate"
well first you need to download a torrent manager...
You wouldn't download a car...bonara
I laughed harder than I should have at that
🤣🤣🤣
Lots of small bytes of bits.
The year is 2521. "Our research has discovered that pirates in the 21st century used to subsist on nothing more than something called Mountain Dew and Doritos. The recipes of which have been lost to history."
Legend has it those biscuits are on his table to this day
LEGEND CONFIRMED!!!
He did the thing!! 17:15
“A guy on the internet who eats it” *Steve1989 intensifies*
I immediately thought of Steve when I saw the episode title.
Nice!
Remember when he ate that 1898 powdered beef boullion?
Steve: "To think this cow was killed over 100 years ago...lets give it a try"
@@schmeaty.1297 Mmm Botulism City
@@apuapustaja1958 Botulism = "Nice hiss"
I think Townsends even mentioned this in his video: most of the time ship cooks would crush and grind up biscuits back into something resembling a flour and use that to bake bread or thicken stews. Eating raw biscuits was typically a last resort thing.
He actually has a link to Townsends' video non Burgoo in the description!
if that's the case why even make hard tack? why not just sail with the hold full of flour?
@@oldfrend Because flour on a ship goes moldy very quickly. Sea biscuits in comparison can last up to a year or longer if they're kept in a dry place.
@@LuvzToLol21 huh. i woulda thought flour being a dry good wouldn't go mouldy. guess that's why i'm not a ship's cook =)
@@LuvzToLol21 Ship biscuits were like making bricks out of flour, so on dry land stored in good condition they could last indefinitely.
I love all of your videos! I am a history teacher and love to include them in my lessons. I have used your “ship’s biscuit” recipe for my classes!
I grew up in a fishing village in southeastern Nova Scotia and ate hard tack a few times. We also had a dish called Solomon Gundy which is raw herring and slices of onion pickled together
I will never cease to be amazed at how you always have a relevant Pokemon plushie.
"There's still some hardtack leftover from the civil war, and there's a guy on the internet that eats it."
Nice.
Let's get this out on to a tray!
How *much* of it is left? I would think such a historically significant, extremely limited supply, item would be something to keep, rather than eating.
I could see once, but the way it was phrased, 'a guy who EATS' seems to imply that it's a hobby, not a one time thing...
@@Amcsae just in case you are still curious about who is eating 100 year old hardtack.
look up Steve1989 he has a channel on youtube
@@Amcsae It was a 1-time thing, normally he eats rations that were made in the 20th Century, not the 19th. But the video he made of him taste-testing it is infinitely more valuable as a historical document than a dusty chunk of hardtack sitting in a museum behind glass.
@@Raskolnikov70i agree that recording will always exist. Plus it's not hard to replicate the food of that time. Sure maybe it won't be exactly the same but... No one's going to eat it. And no one besides Steve will know the "original" taste.
"Probably by the time this airs that'll be gone because teenagers are fickle."
That made me laugh so much 🤣
Ignore TikTok, TikTok is temporary; Port Isaac's Fisherman's Friends are forever.
Small curiosity. Current Polish and Lithuanian military rations does include hardtack-like biscuits. They are called "Suchary Specjalne SU-1/2", and are jokingly called by the soldiers "panzerwaffles". And they are indeed hard AF.
Burgoo, loblolly, lobscouse, skillygalee, dandyfunk, salmagundy
Gosh, those names. I guess they had to figure out how to make _something_ about being shipboard in those days fun and whimsical.
"You just took a shit on a biscuit and handed it to me."
No, no! That's kikifuffle! Try some!
Leave it to the british
Honestly, the greatest marvel of the British Empire was that they could get anyone else to take them seriously.
@@Anastas1786 thats why they had to over compensate by imperializing half the world. And it was still barely enough.
Lobscouse 🤔
Lob = throwing + Scouse = Liverpudlian
Is it named after throwing someone from Liverpool somewhere ??? 🤯
I'm so confused
I grew up in Korea, where locals developed a taste for mini hardtack from US Army rations. I remember eating some as a child, and you basically had to let it soften in your mouth for several minutes before chewing…
Do you mean 건빵?
"Teenagers are fickle" me, a teenager: never have I been so offended by something I completely agree with
Let me tell you this at 20: you will look at this exact moment someday and realize it's even truer than you thought
They're not fickle, they just can't keep a singular mindset for more than 24hrs at a stretch. ;)
Your brain is rapidly growing and changing, especially your prefrontal cortex, so it truly is harder to make decisions and choices, and to determine the possible outcomes of those choices.
It will only keep happening as you get older lol
this is a multi layered joke, bravo.
in southeast Michigan we have a living history museum called Greenfield village, and they have a late 1700s/early 1800s tavern that does their best to make period accurate meals with the food they grow on premises, and they serve salmagundi. theirs is more like a charcuterie: some sausage or salami slices, pickled vegetables (usually onions and something else, I love their pickled black eyed peas for example) with mustard and pickled eggs. excellent stuff
I love your channel. You mentioned making the channel better... and I want to say that, not only is the content wonderful, the music, intro and edits all seem closer to professional than amateurish. You've done an exemplary job, sir. I am impressed.
I wasn't expecting the tack to sound like actual stones hitting each other holy ship
reminded me of terracotta tiles hitting each other, with this slightly porous sound
I see what you did there
The first set I ordered came in a sack and the sound it made unboxing reminded me of wood blocks clinking together.
@@imrail1 Lol that's extremely accurate
The Scone of Stone.
When you get your own Netflix series, will you remember us?
Well I hope you’ll watch that too 🤣
@@TastingHistory Definitely will, but you probably won't hear me screaming congratulations at the TV... Unless I scream REALLY LOUD! :D
@@TastingHistory what happens now
if he had a netflix series he wouldnt be his own boss though ...
@@chronicawareness9986 Excellent point. So I don't know if you know Christine McConnell, but she is an incredible "maker" (though the term doesn't even come close to encapsulating all she does), and she had a series on Netflix for a season. It was dropped after that first season, and she was pretty upset about it. Well, she came back to TH-cam and created a Patreon, and she's in a FAR better place for it.
Though I believe Netflix is a pretty lax company in terms of exerting creative control over their projects, I think building a fan base here might be more Max's style.
Interestingly, when I read The Lord of the Rings, the description of lembas reminded me of my father's German Stollen bread recipe. The cognac used to marinate the dried fruit makes the dough raise less but keep longer and the refined sugar coat also helps.
Lembas is supposed to be delicious, laborious to make, feed well and keep long without spoiling. Properly made and aged Stollen will keep for months, is dense, nutritious and delicious.
We used to age my father's Stollen for a month, encased in clingwrap. Once we couldn't wait and opened it before even two weeks were over. It just wasn't as tasty.
We used to eat hardtack and salt pork back in my reenacting days. I loved the stuff. Even today, now and then, I find myself craving some brick bread and sodium swine. It does a body good.
ah, dwarf battle bread. the stuff that keeps you going on a hard voyage, going in order to find anything at all else to eat. Also finds use as an impromptu projectile weapon, firestarter, or seat.
Things you would rather eat: Raw Sheep. Your own foot.
Rat on a stick.
@@warrenokuma7264 Oh, hullo, Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, didn’t see you there.
Cram!
Pretty sure this is the Scone of Stone replica
In the Netherlands we still eat sea biscuits for birthdays, with butter and candied anise seeds. A side effect of this is that if you survive it, you know you are worthy of living for another year. It is really effective for population control.
That’s a terrible birthday treat 🤣
I kind of like the flavor of anise and licorice. There is a candy in some Icelandic countries that is literally made out of licorice and tar. People used the tar to seal things such as their ships and they had developed a taste for it too and made candy out of it!
@@TastingHistory it's a different kind of biscuit though. it's leavened bread that is dried. It has a crumbly texture. So it's not so hard you can murder someone with it XD
@@jessiegrider529 There is only one Icelandic country: Iceland, which is a Nordic country. 😉
@@mione3690 Greece and Turkey both have versions of leavened but hard-as-rock dried wheat and/or rye biscuits that are obviously made because they keep forever. But they aren’t meant to be eaten as is; you dunk them in water and then let them sit to soften up for 15 minutes or so first. Then they put oil, lemon, tomatoes and other things on, like a messy heap-o-sandwich.