Ship's Bisket - Hard Tack: 18th Century Breads, Part 1.
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- Опубліковано 9 лют 2025
- Bread Part 1 - Ship's Bisket AKA Hardtack - from our 18th century cooking series at Jas. Townsend and son.
#townsendsshipsbread
Bread Series • 18th Century Bread Series
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Ship's Bisket - Hard Tack: 18th Century Breads, Part 1. S2E12
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in fifth grade I made hard tak as a part of an american history project...
I saw my teacher a decade later and he said he still had my hard tak, and he used it as an example of how it was supposed to be made because so many students had messed up the recipe over the years.
shout out to Mr. steve, art space school - NC, you were the best teacher I ever had.
@chinesebassman probably kids biting into hardtack and thinking it should be softer
Show off!!
@chinesebassman Surprisingly easy for dumb and new chefs to screw up recipes that seem incredibly easy.
Oh no...Hardtack? Steve? Are we unto something?
Was your teachef Steve MRE?, Who else stores Hardtack for over a decade?
He kept one knowing he could make content out of it a decade later. I love this guy
Yes. I just realized
The time has came
I feel like he just has a giant cabin of aging food to prove the point of how well it can stay preserved he has done it with this biscuit and with the dried cod he might have a salted buffalo thats 20 years old for all we know
@@fishlife1013 "salted buffalo" should be a meme. Make it so.
“These biscuits were not made to be enjoyed, they were made out of necessity.”
That’s a very polite way of saying they taste terrible.
It is also a way of saying they're hard as rocks. Hence the need to soften them in some form of drink.
You know they are not too bad when softened in bacon fat either....like a pancake sponge.
Kinda like old Wartime survival chocolate, which tasted close to unseasoned boiled potato.
@@FyreEagle That one was intentional so soldiers wouldn't snack on it.
Like CM1 Hammersmith said of the food in the chow hall, circa 2001: It sustains life and makes a turd.
"only lasts a year"
Tell this to SteverMRE1989 who just ate a piece of civil war hardtack that was 153 years old.
RIP
steve has a bedrock belly
The immune system is amazing
But first, let’s get it out onto a tray.
@@trickhealey *clank* nice.
When I was younger I read "The treasure Island" and other similar books in their spanish translation. In them, biskets were referred as "galletas" which can also translate to "cookies", and I pictured them to be of the chocolate chip kind. This video shed some light on why the sailors and pirates got mad when they had "cookies".
Yeah, all around the world, the term biscuit and cookie would have similar meanings.
Galletas marinas, amigo.
*biscuit
stephenc909 no, these actually are biskits. That’s the old spelling for it.
*Gray Au* Well that came off rather rude...
It's amazing that this content was made in 2012 at this level of quality and I'm just now seeing it. You were WAY ahead of your time, brother.
i just want to see this man live a happy life
He is. But only so long as you eat his 18th century biscuits.
Keys879 or he will find you!
lol it's really weird that I agree. I just find him so nice and pleasant. the guy is actually a freaking badass genius.
I know exactly what you mean. He just seems like an extremely likeable person.
Yea he's either a really nice guy or a serial killer. Nothing in between.
8:26 That "Mmm!" was the moment he felt one of his teeth snap.
I laughed too hard at that 😂😂😂
That's probably why they faded to black. 😂
"I'm not eating this on camera."
😂😂😂
Claude you're so funny.
lmfao
My grandfather (my mother's father) went to sea for the first time at 12 years old in 1900. He traveled from Norway to the orient and nearly every port in between. When at port he would play his concertina for tips.
Fifty years later, after years at sea and after immigrating to the U.S. in the mid teens. He and my grandmother were sitting at the dinner table with my mom and dad. My dad noticed that my grandfather did something curious while he ate. While eating his meal, my grandfather would have his bread in one hand the entire time. Even more curious to my father, he would tap his bread constantly giving it an occasional glance. After dinner my dad couldn't hold back any longer and asked him why he did that with his bread. My grandfather smiled and told my dad that he really didn't realize what he was doing as it had become a habit from his seafaring days. He explained that hardtack was a staple on board ship and that it was always infested with weevils. That weevils are disturbed by the tapping and will exit the hardtack. By watching the bread one could tell when it's safe to take a bite. My grandfather had that habit of tapping his bread when he was not aware of it until the day he died.
Ha,sounds pretty accurate. I worked on a ship,for six months. Cruise one. It's a different life, especially if you do it for decades. We didn't had hard-tack,and the food was great. At least for me,who i can eat saw dust-if hungry. But there were still differences from a job on land.The small space,the moving of the ship,the noise of the waves when it's crashing ontowards the ship,lack or expensive internet(i never bought it on board-only used the phone whenever i was in port).
One thing that i noticed after two months,while i went in Nassau for a walk,at night,was that i haven't realized that i missed the night sounds-critters and birds.
Then i went to work on a plane,and believe me,the job description is even weirder-especially as cabin crew. Trying to explain your schedule to somebody that works 9-5,doesn't make any sense!
Pretty sure your grandfather had some awesome stories about life at sea. It takes a different kind of man to do it,and for sure it broadens your horizon.
I really admire and envy those yachters that do global tours-as i do pilots that do cargo flights. Basically the plane is just the cockpit-and in the back,it's free space. They don't have any crew onboard,and they go from multiple destinations across the globe for weeks,then return home Fun fact is that,the can spend even weeks in a cool place,while in a passanger,maybe a max of 3 days,then back home!
Cheers!
That's a Great Story ! 🌻
If it wasn't for his muscle memory, your father wouldn't have heard of the weavel infested sea biscuits . Fascinating!
Thanks for sharing that story with us
..excellent story...it's these small things we hear from our parents, grandparents etc that give us insight into the past that no amount of scholarly publications could ever do
Store hardtack with bayleaves to deter weevils.
That snap at the end was actually his teeth breaking, not the bisket
I clenched my teeth when i read this & heard the snap at the same time.
HAHAHAHA ITS TRUE, YOU CAN EVEN HEAR HIM WINCE IN PAIN AFTER HE BITES INTO IT "MMPHH!" 😂😂😂😂
I said the exact thing right after I watched it. 😂😂😂
NeedMorePuppies yeah they had to cut it when he broke his tooth 🦷 🤣
The relaxing sound of a man breaking his jaw
"sometimes used the ground up hardtack as flour"
Sailors/colonists: I just used bread... to make bread.
Make new sea biscuits out of crushed biscuits.
PERPETUAL BISCUITS
Easiest way to keep flour good for long periods of time!
After all, Steve1989 from MREInfo posted a video of himself eating a 153 year old piece of hardtack from the American Civil War a few years back.
"Let's get this out onto a tray... NICE!"
- Steve1989
Bread for the bread god
It wouldn't be as hard when they rebaked it, so it would be much easier to eat.
Imagine if they used the biscuits to grind them up like pestles and mortars😂
“I used the biscuits to destroy the biscuits”
My son and I just made these about a week ago and dried them out bone dry. His History Teacher wanted them to bring items from the past and he remembered watching the episode with me. Needless to say no one was overly impressed. But, they did enjoy throwing them on the ground and watching them bounce or shatter. They remind me of grape nuts. I plan on sharing them at my next Trail Life camp out. Thank you!
I made some ships biscuits 4 years ago just for fun, one of them has been on the counter since, looks just the same as when it was made.
Sounds like you did a good job of it.
2077
“It’s weird that they left a biscuit for us...”
- future house owner
That's the coolest thing I never thought I'd hear
Just dust it every once in a while
bro i wanna see this sauce the imgur link?
You know whats amazing? Had cooks just added a trace of cinnamon to their hard tack back in the 17th and 18th century, Which was available, It would have been almost impervious to insects, as most insects (Roaches in particular) are repelled by by cinamon and won't eat anything that reeks of it.
Thanks for the tip!
That's a very interesting fact.
That's an interesting fact but weren't all spices and flavorings very expensive? I don't think an average colonial baker could afford to put an exotic spice in his batch of edible bricks.
really? hmmmm, that gives me an idea ...
Or, pack it with mint leaves. Mint is an aggressive spreader, so it would be possible to maintain fresh mint just for this purpose.
Cinnamon might be more antimicrobial than mint; I haven't done any research on it in a while and cannot remember.
I love how even 9 years ago, your production level is still amazing
The alternate title: "How to make 18th Century Hockey Pucks"
Is that marcus aurelius?
👋😂👍lmfao!
@@anibalbabilonia1867 👋😨👋
Nice joke 👌😂
lmao thats what I was thinking
I, for one, am suspicious of food that goes "clank"
Aaron Kennedy Hahahaha
Especially marshmallows
HAHAHA
Lol
I'm more suspicious of any food that can double as a melee weapon or ammunition.
Astonishingly, this video is still good after ten years, it hasn't deteriorated at all.
So the objective is to make the food so unappetizing bacteria and bugs wont eat it so you can
Or just hope it’s the edible kind of bug. More protein!
Weevils we’re actually found inside the hardtack, but since they weren’t too harmful, pirates ate the hardtack.
Not necessarily, if you actually add spices to food, chances are it'll keep longer, because most spices have antibacterial proprieties and some even repel bugs. Thing is, spices can be quite expensive, so they just fed them carb-chalk...
Dr_Face_Slapper It had to be preserved. They didn't have freezers back then!
Good one
I once heard of a man who ate a piece of hardtack and bit into something soft it turned out to be a tenpenny nail
What's that
@@l0sts0ul89 Looked it up it's a nail around 7.62 inches long.
@@davidjones341
I don't think I need to knowithe size
@@l0sts0ul89 what do you need to know it has the word nail in it its a nail
10 foot long Schlong other words have nail in them
i love how you're unchanging throughout all these years and that you remain to be a place of solace and peace for both fans and randoms affected by the algorithm
"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."
Huzzah for Sir Terry!
Huzzah for dwarf bread! You're never out of food as long as you have dwarf bread!
Pray tell: what novel did you get this fine piece of wordy treasure, fellow reader? Sounds Discworld to me. The wording is so... Pratchett.
@@zennvirus7980 IIRC it was from Witches Abroad.
We tested it sir
It's as inedible today as it was thousands of years ago.
To the memory of koom valley
NASA used these as heat shields on the challenger.
I came here to like this comment
Ain't no teenager is gonna know what the uss challenger was.
The uss Columbia would be more appropriate.
@@Menaceblue3 Teenagers don't even know what the Shuttle Program was.Most don't know 9/11.
@@amoxianmercury Okay, boomer.
@@amoxianmercury so people born in the 1950's didn't know what WWII was?
For the outdoor enthusiasts: Using about a tablespoon of sea salt, I've found a few 3"x5" pieces of hard tack to be great for getting sodium back in your body when you've worked up a sweat.
I also add cinnamon to help with insect repellence
@@kodyballard49 would mint help ?
GAINS
I’ve mixed two tablespoons of raw honey into my one pound mix. The biscuits turned out pretty good with milk or cider.
@@kodyballard49 add turmeric
The complete disregard for measuring utensils is inspiring. I've always been a 'by the eye' baker, myself.
Keys879 that my friend is a recipe for disaster
Buddum pshhh
people hate it when I give them a recipe. it's a list of ingredients and I say just use your sense.
+1980Baldeagle I do find it nice to have a general sense of the proportions. E.g, equal parts flour and butter ends up quite different from a cup of flour to a tablespoon of butter, for example.
Keys879 swedsssd
Remind me to not eat anything you cook.
Sea Biscuit, famous racehorse who beat “WarAdmiral”- triple crown winner, his sire was “Hard Tack” whose owners dubbed his offspring “Sea Biscuit”. (Thoroughbred racing trivia )
Thorough-bread 😂 (sorry I couldn’t resist the pun)
I thought of that right away when he said Sea Biscuit!
Hardtack....seabiscuit. Synonyms
Walter when I need courage, I think of 'Sea Biscuit's jockey', blind in one eye, yet!
I had a piece of hardtack years back in school, when a civil war reenactor handed some out in class. To be honest, I didn't hate it. I've actually sorta been craving one since. They are good to just chew on.
I believe Sailor Boy Pilot Bread will satiate you. Apparently Alaskans still have hardtack as a component of their diets and Interbake Foods supplies it under that name.
@@zhiracs It’s also really easy to make at home. It’s just flour and water
@@Giblet12 and salt
I have a similar story! It was a lady dressed as a pilgrim who handed them out. I remember liking it ☺️
Isn't this similarly to homemade play doh? Lol Must be some slightly different that made that stuff soft, but it sounds close to same recipe.
A man who's passionate of his work makes me joyful. Regardless of the field, when a crafter enjoys his craft, I can enjoy it too
"Oh boy, Hardtack for dinner again!" said no one ever.
At least not in a happy voice
Lmfaoooo
I wouldn’t be surprised if people started baking these because of the current situation lol.
@@coltm4a186Yeah I'm probably gonna try baking some of these bad bois just in case
@@z54964380 Teeth exterminators.
Purity Hardbread, still eaten regularly in Newfoundland. Usually soaked in water over night then boiled, served either mixed with cod fish or on its own with a bit of butter and sugar as a breakfast food. We can it brewis, pronounced like bruise. It has a jelly like texture and it's quite tasty.
All I can think of is John Smith trying to give a piece of hard tack to the raccoon in pocahontas
I thought I was the only one!!
Vivien Martin - and a picture of the piece of hard tack flying through the air towards John Smith after being thrown back by the raccoon...lol
I don't understand why, but this channel is fascinating!
History is always fascinating!
exactly how i feel right now. its also quite relaxing.
No matter the subject, people enjoy enthusiasm and sincerity.
it's simple. food and history
The whole aesthetic is relaxing
I love everything that happens on this channel - from the clothing, to the kitchen, to the foods, the information - all of it.
Ships Biscuit would be a great name for a particularly nimble racing yacht, because it can hard tack.
Well done, John.
Who are you John Galt?
Good God a nautical pun that made sense?! Here, have your like!
I sea what you did there.
Badda Bing!
I just discovered, and instantly grew to love this channel.
Me too
Thanks!
Thank you for your kind support!
people wonder why pirates had bad teeth, they ate rocks. good enough of a explanation for me
Endless rum drinking probably didn't help either.
@Elorile The Cat [Sans’ Wife And Girlfriend] Who's Killian Jones?
@Elorile The Cat [Sans’ Wife And Girlfriend] Oh okay.
That and scurvy, because flour, water, and salt does not a staple diet make.
@Johnny's Survival 1. Its r/woooosh
2. Thats not how that works
3. r/ihavereddit
4. #knowurmemes
being a modern chef i love looking back at the techniques used in the days before electricity. thank you for bringing us back to the past.
just curious but do you ever contemplate HOW bread came to be invented? I mean, grinding grain into flour, leavening of some type, ovens that could hold those higher temperatures ... that had to have been a slow, step-by-step process
After all this time, no has quoted the Master and Commander joke: "The lesser of two Weevils.." I just love K Ration biscuits and also the ones in MREs of the'90s.
No one has quoted it, but I thought about it all through the video!
I was about to quote that joke and you beat me to it!
That "mmm" you hear at the end is the sound of him breaking a tooth...seriously, this stuff is as hard as marble when it's made right
+Zen Jon They would literally bake it three to four times.
+nickPOPmusic oh, he said that exact thing in the video, i'll shut my face.
+Pappy Tron they sound like rocks clattering around
+Zen Jon AMEN
I eat it occasionally with butter but i prefer it as brewis. Love sweet tack tho, could eat that all day, slowly!
I love what you're doing with this channel, and you have such a pleasant demeanor!
Here from video "Food That Time Forgot: Ships Biscuits"
Amazing video
So I just stumbled across this video after watching Dave Canterbury make some Hard Tack in his Journal of the Yurt survival series. And I must say that I don't know how I haven't come across this channel sooner. The presentation, the filmography, not to mention the source material visa vis the actual instructional, are all wonderful! I have a feeling where the next few hours are going to be spent and that's going to be watching these videos.
I'm here the exact same way!
Well when you have 500 000 subscribers to your channel, we'll all be very impressed.
Shane Singleton HE STOLE THAT INTEL FROM OTHER PEOPLE HES FAKE
fjvideo YOU DONT LIKE IT THEN FUCKEN DON'T WATCH IT FOOL.
Cyrene the Cat I WOULDN'T CARE IF HE HAD A MILLION. HES ALL TALK NO ACTION.
Update: my biskets have been around for more than a year now, still just in a basket in the kitchen and still no weevils. I give up :)
I brought some to an event recently and a friend took some home to try cooking with them. Haven't heard from him since...
I am sorry to hear about the biskets just not getting buggy. As for your friend, he probably starved to death trying to break them up for his first meal.
Breaking them last year, when I took them to the event first time, included a wooden bucket and buttplate of a musket stock :) We used them in a variation of the lobscouse recipe you posted. It was quite tasty. Also your apple fritters and corn pancakes became a steady part of our camp cooking.
I freeze my whole wheat flour for 2 weeks specifically to kill any bugs in them before storing it in an airtight container. You might have better luck with weevils it you grind your own wheat and store it in a paper bag in the garage over the summer. It's my understanding that weevils come from flour that had weevil eggs laid in them.
Ate some of my 2015 biskets last weekend, pounded them with a buttstock again to add to the lobscouse. Haven't found a single weevil, again. Still have about 3 or 4 biskets left for further experiments and I'll likely make a new batch as well. So, no luck with the bisket weevils, but my portable soup got moldy recently, so...some success at least :)
Just remember, if weevils do appear always keep the smaller ones, any military man knows you should always pick the lesser of two weevils
You, sir, are a treasure. With everything going on in the world I can always come to this channel for some comfy vids. Keep up the good work, may God bless you, and keep doing what you love!!
I saw a video of an MRE reviewer eating an original 1863 Union hard tack lol.
that was Steve1989
+Millie Dragon Gotta love his videos lol.
I love how he is just so happy all the time about his volatile food haha
+Daniel Gerona he really loves the smokes the most....lol
Omg I love watching Steve eat those decades old Rations. His commentary is funny and it's cool watching him smoke those old cigs
I like to refer to these little buggers as "barely edible building materials"
And an internal scraping of your GI tract while you are at it
"Get some ship's biskets, then use them as a thrown weapon to catch something edible. Good luck!"
For Only $9,99. DLC not Included, Pre order now and get three additional Genders
Dwarf bread!
B.E.D. "Barely Edible Decking" for sailors.
He looks like a gentler version of Gordon Ramsey
🤣😂🤣😂
Gordon Ramsay wishes he was as great as this guy
@@rejvaik00 They're equally great in their own way, the two would be totally great bros
I thought to myself what would be the softer more gentle alternative to a ram?- OH! Gordon Goatse-nvm
@@asurmenhandofasuryan4610 ...I'd actually love to see Gordon Ramsay visit the Townsends kitchen now. It would be interesting to see them collaborate on something. The only problem is that Ramsay is by trade an innovator of taste where John is a reenactor of taste - both valuable, but somewhat at odds with each other in goal. Perhaps they could do a historical and modern take on a dish and compare each others' work.
was genuinely expecting to say "my tooth" after it faded to black
Lmfaooo
same here
😭🤚🏽
In my country Ghana West Africa, frothy Palm wine tapped from the oil Palm tree, is used as leavening for bread recipes in Villages located in the nation's Volta Region. Those breads were the best I've ever had.
+MSE. Dzirasa
I know you guys also have the biggest giant snails compared to other places in Africa - I have seen them in pictures on the Internet.
I would like to try grilled giant snails one day, in Ghana, Africa.
I hope by eating giant snails, it can dispel my intense fear of them.
MSE. Dzirasa that sounds amazing
+Enzo Ferrari
Hahahahahaha!
You are HILARIOUS!
Jade Chen I thought giant snails were poisonous?
At least the ones here in Hawaii
Such a resource abundance and you still haven't evolved from mud huts. smh black ppl
Wheat is an interesting food. Having stored whole wheat grains myself, and finding it full of bugs after a few years, I learned something. The wheat I bought was "triple cleaned" and I thought safe to store. I later discovered that no amount of cleaning will preserve the wheat because the bugs, or at least their eggs, are within the wheat kernel. So bugs in your whole wheat flour is almost a given. There is something you can do though. You can bake the flour, either in a pot near the fire stirring occasionally, or in a flatter baking pan in an oven long enough to kill any insects. It could be reinfected from time to time by neighboring commodities, but you can always re-bake it. Currently, flour sacks are labeled as "do not consume raw" because of the possible contamination of e coli or salmonella. And yet raw cookie dough is popular. So what's a person to do? Bake your flour in preparation. A simple solution.
But baking the biscuits killed everything in or on them. If a barrel is opened and it's contaminated it has to be the unsanitary conditions in the original bakery or inside the packing barrel, or boring insects getting into the barrel, or the barrel not being sealed enough and insects wiggling in during the journey.
I'm envisioning a bakery where there's flour and crumbs all over every surface and bugs are just living everywhere. A green wood barrel that hasn't been steamed or baked, and it's unsealed wood, and there are little gaps because it's a dry goods barrel. Fill it with biscuits, and it's already contaminated, but then let it sit in the sun on the loading dock for a few days, maybe it rains, stick it on a filthy ship full of rats, get to it two years later. Yeah it's gonna be full of bugs. But it was technologically possible for them to deliver a sealed barrel of dead biscuit. It was just not demanded.
😂😂😂🙄🤔
People who don't understand the significance of ships biscuit may scoff. But this biscuit could save your life in the long run. Its economical to make, can be stored without refrigeration for up to 50 years and can be used as an ingredient. You can use it to thicken up stews, as crumbing for fish and chicken or add dried fruits, nuts and milk to the pulverized biscuit to make a porridge. Heck, I would like to try pemmican and paprika soup with dehydrated vegetables and crushed ships biscuit, flavored with portable soup. A savoury gruel that will be a complete meal during horrible economic times. Every part of that meal doesn't need refrigeration and lasts a long time. Too bad I am dead broke and can't experiment. Thanks for the recipe.
You are so broke you cannot experiment with poor man's meals from a mere couple centuries ago.
_OH THE IRONY_
Enjoy your scurvy from not eating raw meat or high-ascorbic plants.
@@ellenorbjornsdottir1166 Scurvy's better than starvation.
@@grass1092 Not really. With starvation you just fade away. Scurvy your body falls apart because you can't hydroxylate proline. Highly unpleasant
@@axiomshift4666 the trouble is that dried fruit doesn't stave off scurvy. pickled vegetables do.
It's incredible to see a man preserving these time tested recipes & traditions by living with them, the world has grown too dependant on modernisation & manufacturing.
10 YEARS? wow found this channel and 2018 and was one of my first videos if I can recollect, truly "timeless" content.
I have a soft spot in my heart for these, i used to make these for my family some years ago when we hit some hard times.
Always tasty with some salt and peanut butter.
At this point hearing "They were thought to have medicinal properties" doesn't even phase me, everything was.
Breathing was thought to have medicinal properties as it protected one against asphyxiation.
And eating helped against starvation
Yeah the medicinal properties was that it stopped you from being hungry
If it's stupid and it works it aint stupid. These really would help vs indigestion, by soaking up the stomach acids and stop them from coming back up your throat. Digestive biscuits are much the same except they're improved containing baking soda.
I wouldn't be surprised if they did help with gout too for the same reasons, gout is caused by acid so if these help carry the acid through your body and excrete it then they absolutely would help.
The thing is now we have rennies and gaviscon which are much faster acting at neutralizing acids but that doesn't invalidate old techniques
@@agentstaple1 Make videos on it instead of yapping about it. Otherwise, go see a doctor to diagnose your virtue-signaling habit. Or go see a priest.
It's like... It's like WOW, this content is actually 12 years old? My god, that's awesome!
Yeah I just had to come back to this after the most recent video. Awesome job!
Here in Newfoundland, we're always having fish and brewis - that is, salt fish and hard tack set out overnight and then boiled in the morning, sometimes with scrunchions if one is feeling decadent.
Were someone to give me fish and brewis with no scrunchions I don't know what I'd do. I'm pretty sure it's a capital offense! Wish he'd mentioned sweet tack, I love the stuff and would like to know the difference in how it's made.
What are scrunchiones? :)
+MusikAlltid scrunchions are small cubes of salted pork fat, fried a golden brown, rendering the fat. Add some onion then pour the scrunchions, fat and all, over your fish and brewis. One of those things that sounds disgusting but turns out to be heavenly!
Sounds awesome! :)
+MusikAlltid it's like little crunchy bacon bits! Delicious on a baked potato too!
Subbed after 1 min. Just oozes quality production with heart. Can't get enough of this kind of knowledge. And who knows, the way things are going it might be how we all do things again soon...
I could watch these videos all day long :)
We ain’t had nuthin but maggotty bread for 3 days
Yeah, why can’t we have some meats
Looks like meat's back on the menu boys!
maggots are meat
THEY ARE NOT FOR EATING
What about their legs? They don't need those! Oooh, they look tasty!
We ain't had nothing but maggoty bread for three stinking days!
I grew up in Hampton Roads, and you are bringing up so many fond memories I have as a child going on field trips to places like Jamestown and Williamsburg. Thanks so much for making these videos! I feel like an excited kid again.
I love this channel. Highly addictive. Makes me want to use 18th century attire while cooking and savoring the flavors and the aromas of the 18th century 😂.
and a decade later he still informs
I could watch this guy all day. Seems like he's be super chill to hangout with haha
Experimental archeology at its finest. Greetings from a fan from Germany.
Good video as usual. I remember reading a book called the happy return set during the Napoleonic wars. Captain Hornblower would always tap his biscuit on the table a few times to get the bugs out before he ate it.
Baked some of these sturdy little bricks aboard a tall ship to thicken up your extraordinary Lobscouse. Wonderful to catch those culinary aromas aboard a swaying vessel, mixed with the scent of sea salt and old wood. Did grab a bite of one still soft out the oven -- before it's shell had properly hardened up -- still amazed at its density. Thank you for bringing this hearty piece of history back to life!
These are deadly... I once cut the side of my face with a sea biscuit trying to bite off a piece! Great video as always, keep up to great work you do.
There is something almost mystical about sitting at home and watching a video on my computer about 18th century cooking that comes with the dress tools, etc. It's surreal. Can you imagine what 18th century people would think about it?
They'd probably bury their faces between their hands. Hard.
or think, well yeah ... after all, it IS the 18th century ... get with the program, babe.
It's actually insane how good the production quality of your videos were even back in 2012!
Fascinating! It goes to show how ingenious people are in figuring out a solution to a problem.
When given no choice, while survival is at stake, we can be amazed to this day, how creative and inventive we are, resilient, especially with food supply + storage.
“And got very long term storage, they might bake these 3 or 4 times” 7:10
Geez, just eat rocks then
Rocks are full of minerals
. 😂 😂 😂
@@hannibalburgers477 i guess they’re healthier than hard tack
@ Jotaro Kujo and you can save some teeth
@@jotarokujo4787 Rocks are full of minerals. It must be healthy, he thought.
- Chubbyemu
It's pretty awesome that your videos have always been such high quality, even all those years ago.
Legend has it these things can stop bullets
Andrew Skeith I bet a whole barrel of ship biscuits can stop a cannon ball.
Back in the 18th century that might have been true. Firearms back then weren't as good.
Fill your pockets boys, these biscuits will stop the bullets...
@@CharlesJohnson-yd9ym Eighteenth Century Kevlar!
@@CharlesJohnson-yd9ym that sounds like something Jack Sparrow would say just as an excuse to steal some food
Interesting. In German it's called "Zwie-back" (literally meaning "baked twice"; zwie=zwei=two; back=bake). That makes a lot of sense.
I knew the word but I'm English and my German isn't great and I'd never thought of the etymology of the word. It does seem fairly obvious now - thank you, that's interesting.
Back can also mean bake in English. There is a small river near where I live called backstone beck. A backstone is a large flat piece of sandstone used to bake bread. Beck is a word used in Yorkshire for a small river, like the German Bach.
I heard that the italian Biscottis are similar to Zwiebacl
Quarantine Day 10: watching a full series on bread from the 1700s
this was the comment i was looking for!
Quarantine day 50 I was somehow able to hold off watching this video for a month longer than Clorotch but in time we all make it here.
Quarantine day 40: "Well, still can't get any yeast at the store... might have to make 18th century hard bisket"
It'll help if (God forbid) food supplies dwindle.
IT HAS BEEN 6 MONTHS ALREADY!!!
"Let's get this out onto a tray. (** clank **) NICE!"
- Steve1989 before eating a piece of American Civil War hardtack
+
When I get clearance flour I make this receipt, this is my way of preserving the flour. 8 units to a mylar bag and an 02 absorber.
Fun fact: Dutch people still eat a slightly adapted version of this on their birthdays, served with candied anise seeds. This may or may not serve as a ritual for population control.
XD
Definitely doesn’t work for most of the dutch families i know lol. 6-8 kids...lol
well actually... those biscuits are leavened, and more like fine toasted white bread, and served when people come to visit a newly born baby (so not for your annual birthday celebration). Interesting theory though XD And they are very very dry indeed, and when kept dry they will last for a long time, so you could compare them to the sea-biscuit I guess.
Actually, Zep. It's a treat when a new baby is born. A boy means blue candy covered anise seeds, a girl means pink candied anise seeds. The choice of anise seeds is also a practical one, for anise seeds make the breast milk taste good for the baby, also supporting the digestion in its body. I'm a Dutchy, you see?
@@devonseamoor I know, it was a joke.
You can still buy these up in Alaska, they call them "pilot bread"
Nabisco Crown Pilots!
Not quite the same thing, but close. Pilot bread can be eaten with fear of starving to death. Ships Biscuits you need to be real close to death before they start looking good.
Hard tack is still used in maritime and emergency survival ration packs (like those found in aircraft, particularly military) as far as I'm aware, due to their superior shelf life. After all an ''emergency'' ration pack is for exactly that, it'sanot a MRE.
Grew up on Pilot Bread. Loved it with cheddar cheese and smoked salmon.
Help! Been looking for Pilot Bread forEVER! Used to make great little thin-crust pizzas. where can I find it now!
Crushed, it's an early version of grape-nuts cereal ;)
Keyboard Wrangler I love grape nuts cereal!
This guy has been making amazingly produced, informative and entertaining videos for almost a decade wow
Steve1989 ate a civil war hardtack from 1863, nice
lets get that onto a tray...
Nice!!!
Tarnished Silver actually, I think it was 165 years old. Dunno. I'd actually have to do the math on that.
Korbin Mondschien 153 years old
JLH CREATIONS I knew it was older that 105. Thanks for that.
Fun Fact: When pirates used to eat this, they did so in the dark so they couldn't see if any bugs where in it.
Ah, another man of culture i see
weevils
the bugs are flavor
The Weevils added flavor, texture and much needed vitamins, I expect the sailors were glad for them.
Preinstallable on Roblox the lesser of two weevils
Dear Mr Townsends,
thank you so very much for this video. I made the wife and kids these biscuits for dinner last night and they loved them! Im thinking of making them for all of our friends and relatives this holiday season,.
HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR
MWAH!
love, Jim from the office
I really want to see a tour of his kitchen and how its set up, particularly the chimney and stove area.
I really admire your pottery containers and such. beautiful
+Timothy Webb Thanks.
Thank you for your enthusiasm never sinking, Jason. I remember my father bringing home ships biscuits, when he was in the army for long periods of time, as a pastor for his soldiers. We were a large family of 11, and as children, we were fascinated by those unusual foods our father brought home. Such as dates on sticks in oblong wooden boxes. But the ship's biscuits were our favorite. We had to work hard to chew pieces from it, and anything that was given to us in between meals was very welcome. Those were the sober 50's in Holland.
In England in the 50s we used to buy those dates for Christmas. They were more expensive and tastier than the dates in blocks. So they were a Christmas treat.
They also made great weapons during a mutiny
Pshhh, why would people complain about eating biscuits that were made to last long
8:05 Oh 😐
If somenone told me they were solid wood I'd believe it.
Lmaoooo
@@AverchenkoMiroslav 😂🤣😂🤣
One understands everything they need to know with a single "clack clack" to the point it's almost second nature to knock them together
I remember eating this delicious treat back in 1850 during my voyage to Karabalgalah. Good times.
You sorta look like 18th century Gordon lol
ITS BLOODY RAAAWW
THERE'S BLEEDING WEEVILS IN THE FOOKING BISKETS? YOU'RE GOING TO KILL SOMEONE YOU DONKEY!
THOU SHIP'S BISKET IS THRICE UNBAKED!
WHERE IS THINE LAMB SAUCE
jigglymabob That would be THY ship's bisket.
This is probably my 6th time watching this and I don't know why.
Good job!!!
The origin of the 10 years old biscuit
When I was a kid in the 60's I ate a ton of buttered hard tack. I'm in TN now and good luck finding anyone here who ever heard of it. Thank you for the memory from the bottom of this NH girl's heart, it really brought a tear. I know this recipe isn't the later gray cardboard of my time, but that may be a good thing!
Dawg this channel has saved me so much
These weird rations have helped me stay full so many times
Thank you
"'This wasn't meant to be enjoyed' it was made out of necessity." My wife has been telling the truth all this time.
Mrs Pappan:"Ooo! Now I can add THESE to the menu!"
Mr Pappan: 😑