A simple biscuit with an incredible history.
The ship biscuit or otherwise known as ‘hard tack’, was a plain biscuit made from a simple mixture of flour, water and salt which was mixed together into a stiff dough, baked for 30 minutes and left to harden and dry.
This may sound like one of the blandest biscuits known to man and count yourself lucky you’ve never had to eat one of them, but they provided necessary sustenance on long haul journeys at sea. Before the introduction of canned goods in the 19th century, they were an essential part of a sailor’s diet.
The ship biscuit became a replacement for perishable foods as they could remain edible for anything between 6 months to a year and could survive all climate conditions too; from the hot and humid tropics to the freezing temperatures of the Artic. They were both cheap and long lasting- what’s not to like!
Although the first documented appearance of a ship biscuit was in 1588, when the Spanish Armada distributed 1lb of biscuits per day to their seamen, it wasn’t until 1667 when Samuel Pepys, the famous diarist, first regularised naval supplies.
As an administrator of the British Navy in the 17th century, Pepys was solely responsible for rationing one pound daily of ‘good clean, sweet, sound, well baked and well-conditioned wheaten biscuits plus one gallon of beer’.
There were of course some issues with the infamous ship biscuit..
Firstly, food storage and hygiene standards were obviously not what they are today, and with that of course came a mountain of issues.
The biscuits were stored in canvas bags and kept inside barrels, stowed away in the ship’s bread stores. This storage was not well ventilated and very rarely saw the light of day. Mass pest infestation and mould was a given, with weevils (small beetles) becoming a commonplace on board (and in the biscuits)!
Fun fact: sailors would often repeatedly hit their biscuits on the table before eating to shake out any unwanted pests.
The weevil situation on ships became so bad, it led to a number of de-weeviling’ experiments over the course of the 19th century. The best invention seemed to be a tin lined wooden case, which would later become a sealed metal container.
This ‘invention’ may seem familiar to you… today, it is known as a biscuit tin!
So next time you take a biscuit from the biscuit tin, remember it came from attempts to stop weevils from infesting sailor’s biscuits.
If you do want to truly immerse yourself in the authentic experience, here is a recipe for you to try at home:
Ingredients:
· 1lb Whole Meal Flour
· ¼oz Salt
· Water
Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 190ºc
2. Mix the salt and flour together and add the water slowly, mixing until you have created a very stiff dough.
3. Leave the dough for half an hour.
4. Roll the dough out fairly thickly (to about half an inch or just over a centimetre deep) and use a round cutter to cut them out.
5. Use a fork to prick the biscuits all over the top side.
6. Place on a greased baking tray and bake for about 30 minutes.
7. Enjoy!
If you want to read more on the traditional ship biscuit, we highly recommend this blog by the National Maritime Museum as well as a wealth of detailed academic research including the likes of Janet Macdonald, Feeding Nelson’s Navy: The True Story of Food at Sea in the Georgian Era, Janet Vorwald Dohner, The Encyclopedia of Historic and Endangered Livestock and Poultry Breeds and John Ehrman’s The Navy in the War of William III, 1689–1697.
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