Hardtack Recipe (Survival Bread)

This hardtack recipe is very easy to make. As you probably know, hardtack is a survival bread & historic settler food with an extremely long shelf life. If properly stored, hardtack can last for years. Hardtack has been used for centuries and was a historic mainstay for pioneers, settlers, sailors & soldiers when traveling on long journeys.

Hardtack is a very simple recipe and only requires flour, water and salt. It is also a cheap way to create long-term survival or camping supplies. It costs only pennies to make hardtack versus paying a fortune for MREs, freeze dried camping food, etc. Making hardtack is also a fun way to show your kids what pioneers & ancient soldiers/sailors had to eat as they traveled across the country or globe.

Remember To Soak Hardtack Before Eating!!!

However, please remember that hardtack is NOT a soft cracker, tender biscuit or fluffy sandwich bread. It was a survival food & military ration that was historically created for use during long hard journeys (not gourmet meals!). When eating hardtack, it should be soaked first in water, milk, soup, stew, etc. for at least 5-10 minutes in order to soften the hardtack before eating… because “hard”tack is kind of HARD. Historically, according to Wikipedia, “To soften, hardtack was often dunked in brine, coffee, or some other liquid, or cooked into a skillet meal”.

Cut Dough Into Squares

Ingredients – Hardtack Recipe (Survival Bread)

• 2 Cups – All Purpose Flour – Do not use self-rising flour
• 3/4 Cup – Water
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons – Salt – Optional ingredient!! Historically, salt was added as a preservative. However, hardtack was also made without salt if it was unavailable. See the tips section for more information.

Servings – 10-12 biscuits/crackers. For 20-24 hardtack biscuits/crackers, you just need to double each ingredient in this hardtack recipe.

Equipment Needed – Measuring cup & spoons, mixing bowl, rolling pin, cutting board, silicone spatula, baking sheets, oven mitts, cooling rack and an oven. Plus airtight food containers.

Use Chopsticks To Poke Holes In Dough (Picture Before Baking)

Instructions – Hardtack Recipe (Survival Bread)

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Mix the flour, water and salt in a bowl.
• After mixing completely, the dough should be a little dry (and not stick to your fingers).
• If your mix is still too sticky, you can add more flour in small increments until the dough is dry enough. See the tips section below for more information.
• Use a roller to spread out the dough on a counter, large cutting board, etc. until it reaches a thickness of roughly 1/3 to 1/2 inches.
• To prevent sticking to the counter or cutting board, you should spread a little flour on the surface before rolling the dough. Also spread a little flour on top of the dough to prevent the roller from sticking to the dough.
• Cut the dough into squares (e.g. 3 inch squares). You can create square hardtack “biscuits” by cutting the dough horizontally & vertically on a large cutting board.
• Poke narrow holes in the hardtack biscuits with a chopstick or fork. The holes should go all the way through to the other side of the hardtack. This prevents the hardtack from puffing up.
• Place the hardtack biscuits on a baking sheet/tray.
• Put the baking sheet into the oven and bake for 30 minutes at 375 F. Wear oven mitts.
• Flip the hardtack over with a spatula and bake for another 30 minutes. Wear oven mitts.
• Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Wear oven mitts. Then use a spatula to remove the hardtack from the baking sheet. Place the hardtack biscuits on a cooling rack in order to cool down.
• When completely cooled, place the hardtack in an airtight container.
• Please read the tips section below for extra information on how to make this recipe successfully.

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Helpful Tips & Interesting Facts – Hardtack Recipe (Survival Bread)

• Click on this “print recipe” link if you want to print out this recipe. It includes all of the recipe’s ingredients and instructions. However, the recipe print function does not include my tips section. Please read the tips section in order to avoid common recipe problems.
• Let me reemphasize that hardtack is NOT a soft delicious cracker!!! It was created to be a long-term survival food or military ration that was less likely to spoil on long journeys. It was not designed to be a tasty snack.
• Hardtack is not a white cracker (soft & crunchy). It will come out as a brown & very hard biscuit or flatbread.
• The thickness of the hardtack dough (before baking) should be between 1/3 and 1/2 inches. Do not make the hardtack too thick or it will not bake properly.
• Hardtack is an unleavened bread. It does NOT use yeast, baking soda, baking powder, etc.

• Hardtack has been around for thousands of years. Hardtack was often eaten by Roman legionaries when on campaign. According to Wikipedia, “For these meals, the soldiers were issued regular rations consisting mainly of wheat, which composed roughly 60–70% of a soldier’s total rations. This would be consumed in the form of either bread or porridge. However, while on campaign, the soldiers would cook their wheat rations into hardtack, a long-lasting biscuit”.
• Beyond Roman legionaries, hardtack has been used by a wide range of armed forces over the centuries including Crusaders, British navy sailors, Civil War soldiers, etc.
• Hardtack is thicker than regular crackers because it was made to be more durable. Hardtack had to survive intact throughout long journeys, rough terrain, stormy seas, etc. Thin hardtack would break too easily.
• Hardtack does not use yeast. Why? Because yeast would have made hardtack softer/fluffier and thus easier to break & crumble. Hardtack had to be very durable in order to survive rough seas abroad naval ships, long & bumpy wagon journeys across continents, etc.
• Another possible reason (just me guessing) – The use of yeast would have added extra “production” time, effort & cost to the hardtack. Hardtack was supposed to be a very easy & inexpensive travel or military ration.
• Visitors – Why are you making or researching hardtack? Because you need inexpensive camping supplies? Preparation in case of natural disasters? School history project? Concerned about a possible war or civil unrest? Required for your historic reenactment hobby? Other? Please post your hardtack reasons & thoughts in the comment section below.

• You can use all purpose flour, bread flour or whole wheat flour to make hardtack.
• However, I like to use all purpose flour to make hardtack because it is generally less expensive than bread flour and whole wheat flour. Moreover, whole wheat flour spoils faster than all purpose flour and bread flour (because whole wheat flour retains more of its natural oils, wheat germ, etc.). Therefore, old whole wheat flour can taste & smell strange/bad unless it is replaced often (e.g. you bake a lot of whole wheat goods and frequently buy new whole wheat flour). Obviously, spoiled/rancid flour can impact the taste & smell of hardtack.
• Use FRESH flour for the best results. Old all purpose flour will absorb moisture and odors from the air (if it is not stored in an airtight container). In addition, all purpose flour stored in an open container or bag will go bad/rancid faster than all purpose flour stored in an airtight container.
• Old flour stored in an open container will absorb moisture from the air. This extra moisture can throw off this hardtack recipe (& other bread recipes) by making the dough too wet and sticky. If your dough is too sticky (due to the old flour or an incorrect ingredient measurement), you can add more flour in small increments until the hardtack dough is dry enough (and does not stick to your fingers).
• Do not use self-rising flour. Self-rising flour contains a leavening agent (usually baking powder). This recipe calls for the use of all-purpose flour (that does not contain baking powder/soda or yeast). This recipe will not work properly if you use a leavening agent (e.g. baking powder/soda or yeast).

• As I state in the ingredients section, you can make hardtack with or without salt. If you make the hardtack version that includes the salt listed above, it will be closer to the hartdtack that you might have found in the military rations of the 1700s and 1800s. Obviously, hardtack from that era was not designed for modern-day taste preferences or medical concerns about excess salt.
• Some military rations (e.g. hardtack, salted beef and salted pork) eaten by Civil War soldiers in America and British naval personnel during the Napoleonic Wars contained a lot of salt. Salt was added as a way to extend the shelf life of these historic military rations. Salt was not added to these rations as a flavor enhancer. For more information regarding historic military rations, you might like to read the Wikipedia article on Military Rations.
• If you want to learn how salt preserves food, you should read the Wikipedia article on Salting Food.
• Optional – You can make hardtack without salt if you have a medical issue with salt, don’t like the taste of heavily salted food, etc. Historically, in areas where salt was not available or was too expensive, hardtack was made without salt. However, when salt was available & inexpensive, it was often added to hardtack as a preservative (because the salt helped the hardtack to last longer in storage). Hardtack made with salt generally has a longer shelf life than hardtack made without salt (given the same storage conditions, heat & humidity, etc.).
• Optional – Not very historic but… you can reduce the salt by a 1/2 teaspoon and add a 1/2 teaspoon of dried herbs/spices (e.g. ground pepper, dried rosemary or Italian seasoning) to this hardtack recipe in order to make the hardtack more palatable & flavorful.
• Visitors – What do you like to add to your hardtack in order to improve the flavor without hurting the shelf life of the hardtack? Please add your hardtack tips in our comment section.

• Some online hardtack recipes include ingredients such as butter or vegetable oil. While these ingredients might make the hardtack softer and more tasty, they can significantly cut down on the shelf life of the hardtack. Why? Because the fats in butter & vegetable oil will spoil (go rancid). Historic hardtack was made from just flour, water and salt (or just water & flour if salt was not available).
• Historically, honey or sugar was not added to hardtack due to three main reasons – cost, less durability and reduced shelf life.
• Honey & sugar are hygroscopic. This means that they will attract moisture when added to hardtack (they pull moisture from the air). This would increase the chances of mold & bacteria developing over time & thus shorten the shelf life of the hardtack.
• Insects are also more attracted to items made with honey or sugar.
• Honey & sugar soften baked goods and this means a less durable hardtack. Not great for hardtack’s ability to survive rough journeys at sea, etc.

• Remember when eating hardtack, hardtack should be soaked first in water, milk, soup, stew, etc. for at least 5-10 minutes in order to soften the hardtack before eating. Some experts think that very dry hardtack should be soaked for at least 15 minutes. However, you should just continue to soak the hardtack if it is still hard when you try to eat it. After soaking the hardtack, you can eat it like a biscuit or experiment by frying it like Roman and Civil War soldiers!
• According to Wikipedia, during the American Civil War, “Some men also turned hardtack into a mush by breaking it up with blows from their rifle butts, then adding water. If the men had a frying pan, they could cook the mush into a lumpy pancake; otherwise they dropped the mush directly on the coals of their campfire. They also mixed hardtack with brown sugar, hot water, and sometimes whiskey to create what they called a pudding, to serve as dessert”.
• One of my visitors (thanks Rob!) posted “To make the hard tack easier to eat, Fry it in Bacon grease or other grease or oil or fat, lard, shortening anything for 1 – 2 minutes or until golden brown, it makes the outside crunchier & easier to eat, definitely softens it up & the inside is much softer & easy to eat”.
• In addition, according to the National Park Service (Manassas National Battlefield Park), soldiers during the American Civil War would “soak hardtack in water and fry it in bacon fat or lard (animal fat) to make something they called “skillygalee.”

• Make sure that your oven has been completely preheated. This can take 15-20+ minutes. If the oven has not been properly preheated, the hardtack could come out underbaked. Use an oven thermometer (that hangs inside the oven) to check the internal oven temperature to ensure that the oven has reached the correct temperature.
• Also an oven’s internal temperature might not match the temperature set on your oven’s dial. Some ovens run hotter or colder than the set dial temp. This is another reason to use a hanging oven thermometer to check your oven’s internal temperature.
• This recipe is based on using a traditional oven (and NOT a convection oven). A convection oven will bake things faster than expected and this can lead to the hardtack overbaking/burning if you use this recipe’s expected baking time.
• When baking hardtack, make sure to place the baking tray in the center of the oven. Do not place the hardtack near your oven’s heating elements. If you place the baking tray on the top or bottom rack, it might be near the oven’s heating element (where the temperature will be hotter than expected). This could lead to the hardtack burning.

• Hardtack must be completely cooled before you try to store it because the cool down helps to complete the drying process. Some people like to leave the hardtack on the cooling rack for a least a day in order to finish the drying process (in a non-humid environment). Others recommend letting it dry for several days on the cooling rack.
• To keep it from going bad, hardtack should be stored in an airtight food container. This prevents moisture (from the air), pests, etc. from reaching the hardtack. Proper food storage is especially important if you are using hardtack as part of your long-term survival food supplies. FYI – Light & temperature can also impact the shelf life of food.
• Some people also like to use vacuum sealing for the long-term storage of dry food products (e.g. hardtack). For more information, you might like to read the Wikipedia articles on vacuum packing and food preservation.
• Other long-term survival foods include canned food, MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), dried goods (e.g. dried beans, grain & rice), pasta, freeze dried food, etc.

• Since hardtack is made with just flour, water & salt, it is not a good source of some essential nutrients such as vitamin C. Therefore, hardtack is often used to supplement more nutritious foods (e.g. meats, vegetables and fruit) and is generally used as a source of inexpensive calories. If you want to learn more about essential nutrients, you might like to read the Wikipedia article on Human Nutrition.
• Hardtack is also known as survival bread, survival biscuits, etc. Moreover, according to Wikipedia, it has also been called “cabin bread, pilot bread, sea biscuit, soda crackers, sea bread (as rations for sailors), ship’s biscuit, or pejoratively as dog biscuits, molar breakers, sheet iron, tooth dullers, armor plates (Germany) and worm castles”.
• According to Wikipedia, “Interbake Foods of Richmond, Virginia, produces most, if not all, of the commercially available hardtack in the United States, under the “Sailor Boy” label. As of January 2015, 98 percent of its production goes to Alaska. Alaskans are among the last to still eat hardtack as a significant part of their normal diet. Originally imported as a food product that could endure the rigors of transportation throughout Alaska, hardtack has remained a favored food even as other, less robust foods have become more readily available”.
• However, Wikipedia also states that “Unlike the traditional hardtack recipe, Sailor Boy Pilot Bread contains leavening and vegetable shortening.” So Sailor Boy seems to be more like a cracker than a traditional hardtack. Thanks Isaac for pointing that out!

• According to Wikipedia, hardtack is known as “Kanpan in Japan and Geonbbang in South Korea, meaning ‘dry bread’, and is still sold as a fairly popular snack food in both countries… Canned kanpan is also distributed in Japan as emergency rations in case of earthquake, flood, or other disaster”.
• Hardtack is also used as part of a traditional Newfoundland (Canada) meal called Fish and Brewis. According to Wikipedia, “Fish and brewis (pronounced “brews”) is a traditional Newfoundland meal consisting of cod and hard bread or hard tack. With the abundance of cod around the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador it became synonymous with many Newfoundland households as a delicacy to be served as a main meal”… “The recipe may vary from community to community or even household to household, but the primary ingredients are always the same. The typical recipe calls for salt fish that is soaked in water overnight to reduce the salt content of the fish, and the hard bread is also soaked in water overnight. The next day, the fish and hard bread are boiled separately until tender, and then both are served together”… “The traditional meal is served with scrunchions, salted pork fat which has been cut into small pieces and fried. Both the rendered fat and the liquid fat are then drizzled over the fish and brewis.” My thanks to Brendan for pointing out this interesting Newfoundland meal!

• Interesting fact – According to CNBC, in 2015, a hardtack cracker from a Titanic lifeboat “sold at auction for £15,000 ($22,990)”. This hardtack cracker was “part of a survival kit that would have been found in the Titanic’s lifeboats… It was kept as a souvenir by the Fenwicks, newlyweds that were onboard the SS Carpathia that came to the rescue of Titanic survivors”.
• Other potential survival breads (and related foods) that you might like to explore include campfire bread, frying pan bread, breads made with baking powder (no yeast), flatbreads (no yeast), tortillas (no yeast), ash cakes, Johnnycakes, wild yeast breads, unleavened breads, oatcakes, etc. These examples often do not store as well as hardtack. However, they are seen as potential survival breads because they are simple to make and/or they may enable you to make bread if you are missing a key ingredient (e.g. packaged yeast) or piece of equipment e.g. a functioning oven).

• My recipes are based on US ingredient measurements (e.g. US cups & tablespoons). However, as a courtesy to our European visitors, I have also included some very ROUGH European equivalents (e.g. grams & milliliters). Since I rarely use European measurements when baking, please let me know in the comment section below if any of the European ingredient measurements need to be changed (e.g. for XYZ ingredient, milliliters are more commonly used versus the grams information listed in the recipe).
• Always wear oven mitts/gloves when dealing with hot ovens, baking sheets, etc.
• If you are researching survival bread, you should also learn how to make basic homemade breads (e.g. white bread). Fresh homemade bread can make a crisis (e.g. if you are trapped inside during a pandemic) more bearable for families.
• Check out Bread Dad’s sections on Bread Machine Recipes and Homemade Bread Recipes for simple bread recipes that you can make at home.

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Hardtack Recipe Questions

What does hardtack taste like?

Hardtack actually tastes pretty good because it soaks up the flavor of the liquid, stew or soup that you use in order to soften the hardtack. By itself, hardtack is not delicious because it is basically a VERY HARD salty thick bland cracker. However, hardtack is much better tasting (and softer) when combined with a flavorful semi-liquid meal (e.g. soup).

How can I improve the taste of hardtack?

Some people like to add butter or vegetable oil to their hardtack recipes. However, these ingredients can cause the hardtack to spoil much more quickly and shorten the hardtack shelf life significantly. I prefer to add some dried herbs such as black pepper, rosemary or Italian seasoning in order to enhance the flavor. Dried herbs can improve the taste of hardtack without having a huge impact on its long-term storage potential.

Can I buy hardtack?

You can buy hardtack from retailers such as Amazon. The most popular brand of hardtack is Sailor Boy Pilot Bread. However, it is much easier and cheaper to make your own with the hardtack recipe on this page!

Does hardtack go bad?

If hardtack is made properly (e.g. without butter or vegetable oil) and stored correctly (e.g. in an airtight container), hardtack can last for years. However, if hardtack is stored improperly (e.g. open to moisture and insects) and made with less stable ingredients (e.g. butter or vegetable oil) added for softness and/or flavor, hardtack can spoil much more quickly.

Why is it called hardtack?

Tack was slang used by British sailors for the word “food”. Therefore, hardtack means “hard food”.

How do you eat hardtack?

There are many different ways to eat hardtack. For example, you can soften hardtack in stew or a soup and eat it like a large cracker. Or a person can crumble the hardtack into soup in order to act as a “thickener”. Another way is to soak hardtack in milk for 15 minutes and then fry it. Or you can break up the hardtack and add milk & sugar in order to make breakfast porridge. Historically, some people even make hardtack into a dessert by crumbling it and combining the hardtack with butter, brown sugar and whiskey.

Can I make hardtack without salt?

Yes. Pioneers often made hardtack without salt (because salt on the frontier was too hard to find or too expensive). However, salt has been used in hardtack for centuries. Salt acts as a natural preservative and helps hardtack to last longer in storage. In addition, salt improves the taste of hardtack (as “no salt” hardtack is extremely bland).

What is hardtack made out of?

Hardtack is made out of water, flour and salt. However, many pioneers made hardtack out of only flour and water. Salt was too hard to find or was too expensive for many pioneers. However, today when salt is cheap, it is better to add salt to a hardtack recipe because salt adds flavor and acts as a natural preservative.

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Reference Sources

1. Wikipedia, Hardtack
2. Wikipedia, Bread
3. Wikipedia, Cracker (Food)
4. Wikipedia, Fish and Brewis
5. Wikipedia, Food Preservation
6. Wikipedia, Food Storage
7. Wikipedia, Military Rations
8. Wikipedia, Salting Food
9. Wikipedia, Vacuum Packing
10. National Park Service (Manassas National Battlefield Park)

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