Throughout history, bread has been a vital staple of life. Archaeological evidence suggests
that pre-neolithic cultures baked a very simple flat bread on hot stones and sourdough breads
have been made for millennia.
First century Romans observed the Celts of Gall skimming the foam off of beer to create
a lighter kind of bread. By the 13th century, bread became highly regulated. As an early
form of wage and price controls. Unscrupulous bakers who cut corners to increase profits
faced potentially heavy punishment. Such regulation was common throughout Europe and early documents
show that at least an attempt was made for doing the same thing in 18th century colonial America.
Over the coming weeks we're going to focus on 18th century breads. We're going to begin
our journey with one of the simplest forms, the ship's bisket.
This bisket is known by many names. Most of the time it was called just bisket, sometimes
it was called hard bisket or brown bisket, sea bisket and ship's bread. Now many today
might want to call it hard tack, but hard tack is really a 19th century term that was
popularized during the American civil war. These 18th century biskets, they're not like
today's buttery flaky version that we serve along with sausage gravy for breakfast. These
biskets were not made to be enjoyed, they were made out of necessity. So ship's captains
faced a continual challenge of having enough food on board to feed a large crew for a long
journey. Food spoilage was really his greatest concern. Fresh bread rapidly became moldy
on long trips and so did stored flour which would go rancid and bug ridden, so hard bisket
is really born out of necessity. It's a means of food preservation. If it was prepared properly
and stored properly it would last for a year or more. In addition to preservation, the
bisket form also helped in portability and in dividing the rations when it came time.
Soldiers and sailors typically got one pound of bread a day and the biskets were usually
made in about a four ounce form so when it came time to distribute them, each sailor
or soldier would get four biskets. Biskets from London were considered to be
the highest quality. The most resistant to mold and to insects. They were really the
standard by which all the other bisket makers aspired to, but not all biskets were the same
quality. In a book called "The Adventures of Roderick
Random" from 1748 we read this little section here: "Every bisket like a piece of clockwork
moved of it's own internal impulse, occasioned by myriads of insects that dwelled within
it." There are other accounts of sailors opening up barrels marked sea biskets and only to
find them filled to overflowing with roaches. The sea biskets having long since disappeared.
Biskets were not only used by sailors but also soldiers and travelers. Travelers of
just about any sort. Traders many times used them to bargain with the Indians and they
were also thought to have medicinal properties. They used them in treating edema and indigestion
and gout. Just as biskets had different names and different
uses, they were also made in different ways. The term bisket has its origins in the word
twice baked. Many 18th century recipes call for bread rolls to be baked, sliced into slices
and then baked again. These are also known as rusks. Ben Franklin in his memoir also
called this type of bisket the true original bisket, much superior to the unleavened variety,
but it's this unleavened variety that we're going to do today.
We've preheated our oven and allowed it to cool to a medium low heat. If you're doing
this in a home oven, about 300-350 degrees. Our ingredients for these biskets are very
simple. We've got some whole wheat flour. You're definitely going to need some salt,
and then we need enough water to make a very stiff dough.
So let's get these mixed up. I'm going to probably work with about two pounds of flour
here, enough to make eight 4 ounce biskets. We're going to just guess our amount of salt
and get that mixed in, and now let's pour in that water until we get a good stiff dough.
I've got this larger loaf kneaded here, now it's time to break this up into the individual
approximately four ounce portions for each bisket and then I'll form those up individually.
Each one of these I'm going to knead just a little bit more and get it into its patty
or final bisket shape. These biskets are ready to go on the baking tray here. We're going
to arrange them, they're not going to rise so we can put them right next to each other.
You want to make sure they're the final proper thickness, about a half an inch, maybe a little
thinner, and we need to prick them so that they don't puff up too much.
Okay, these are ready for the oven. We're going to put these in and they're going to
bake for 2-3 hours at that low temperature. You want to watch them to make sure they don't burn.
It's been 3 hours. These should have baked long enough. Many times in the time period,
these would be baked and then pulled out. They'd let them cool and then they'd bake
them again the next day, probably at a lower temperature to drive out any excess moisture
and for very long term storage, they might bake these three or four times. Let's take a look.
Hard biskets could be eaten just as they are, but it was never thought of as an enjoyable
event. Many times they were soaked in wine, brandy, or sac to soften them up a little.
Cooks would also take the biskets and they would grind them up or powder them by putting
them in a bag and beating them with a hammer then take the crumbs left over and
use them like flour. This crunched up bisket tastes a lot like raisin bran without the raisins.
While this isn't the most flavorful recipe that we've done so far, it's certainly a very
significant food source for people in the 18th century.
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