Benjamin Boster

John Billings, the soldier in the 10th Massachusetts Battery, outlines many details on how hardtack was utilized during the war in his book, Hardtack and Coffee.

With insect infestation common in improperly stored provisions, soldiers would break up the hardtack and drop it into their morning coffee.

This would not only soften the hardtack, but the insects, mostly weevil larvae, would float to the top, and the soldiers could skim them off and eat the biscuits.

The grubs left no distinctive flavor behind,

Some men 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'd drop 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.

Royal Navy hardtack during Queen Victoria's reign was made by machine at the Royal Clarence Victualing Yard at Gosport, Hampshire, stamped with the Queen's mark and the number of the oven in which it was baked.

When machinery was introduced into the process, the dough was thoroughly mixed and rolled into sheets about two yards long and one yard wide, which were then stamped in one stroke into about 60 hexagonal shaped biscuits.

The hexagonal shape saved material and time and made them easier to pack compared to the traditional circular shaped biscuit.

Hardtack remained an important part of the Royal Navy sailors' diet until the introduction of canned foods.

Canned meat was first marketed in 1814, and preserved beef in tins was officially introduced to the Royal Navy rations in 1847.

As early as the Spanish-American War in 1898, some military hardtack was used by service members in etching or writing notes, often commemorating events or coined with phrases of the time.

Cockatbread was a type of bread in England, where it is one of several kinds of bread named.

It seems to have been hard sea biscuit, which perhaps had then some mark or seal, a cockat, on it, or else was so-called from its being designed for the use of the coxswain or semen.

Commercially available hardtack is a significant source of food energy in a small durable package.

A store-bought 24-gram cracker can contain 100 calories from 2 grams of protein, but practically no fiber.

Mabo mentioned hardtack as being a stable food of Chinese hard labor workers in Inner Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution.

Hardtack was a staple of military servicemen in Japan and South Korea well into the late 20th century.