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Hardtack (or hard tack) is a simple type of cracker or biscuit, made from flour, water, and sometimes salt. Inexpensive and long-lasting, it was and is used for sustenance in the absence of perishable foods, commonly during long sea voyages and military campaigns.〔(KenAnderson.com ) article on Hardtack〕 The name derives from the British sailor slang for food, "tack." It is known by other names such as pilot bread, ship's biscuit, shipbiscuit, sea biscuit, cabin bread, sea bread (as rations for sailors), brewis (possibly a cognate with "brose"), or pejoratively "dog biscuits", "tooth dullers", "sheet iron", "worm castles", or "molar breakers". Australian and New Zealand military personnel knew them with some sarcasm as ANZAC wafers. ==History== The introduction of the baking of processed cereals including the creation of flour provided a more reliable source of food. Egyptian sailors carried a flat brittle loaf of millet bread called dhourra cake, while the Romans had a biscuit called buccellum. King Richard I of England left for the Third Crusade (1189–92) with "biskit of muslin," which was a mixed grain compound of barley, rye and bean flour.〔 Some early physicians associated most medical problems with digestion. Hence, for sustenance and health, eating a biscuit daily was considered good for one's health. The bakers of the time made biscuits as hard as possible, as the biscuits would soften and be more palatable with time due to exposure to humidity and other weather elements. Because it is so hard and dry, hardtack (when properly stored and transported) will survive rough handling and temperature extremes. The more refined captain's biscuit was made with finer flour. To soften, it was often dunked in brine, coffee, or some other liquid or cooked into a skillet meal. Baked hard, it would stay intact for years if it was kept dry. For long voyages, hardtack was baked four times, rather than the more common two, and prepared six months before sailing.〔(Article on Hardtack ) from ''Cyclopædia''〕 In 1588, the daily allowance on board a Royal Navy ship was one pound of biscuits plus one gallon of beer. Later, Samuel Pepys in 1667 first regularized naval victualing with varied and nutritious rations. 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 they were baked. Biscuits remained an important part of the Royal Navy sailor’s 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.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Ships Biscuits – Royal Navy hardtack )〕 Ship's biscuit, crumbled or pounded fine and used as a thickener, was a key ingredient in New England seafood chowders from the late 1700s.〔John Thorne and Matt Lewis Thorne, ''Serious Pig: An American Cook in Search of His Roots''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1996. pp.163–166.〕 In 1801, Josiah Bent began a baking operation in Milton, Massachusetts, selling "water crackers" or biscuits made of flour and water that would not deteriorate during long sea voyages from the port of Boston, which was also used extensively as a source of food by the gold prospectors who immigrated to the gold mines of California in 1849. Since the journey took months, pilot bread, which could be kept a long time, was stored in the wagon trains. His company later sold the original hardtack crackers used by troops during the American Civil War. The G. H. Bent Company remains in Milton, and continues to sell these items to Civil War re-enactors and others. During the American Civil War (1861–65), three-inch by three-inch (8 cm by 8 cm) hardtack was shipped from Union and Confederate storehouses. Some of this hardtack had been stored from the 1846–48 Mexican–American War. 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 off the insects and resume consumption. 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.〔("Hardtack Is Easy to Make, Hard to Eat" ), ''The Washington Post'', 2004-12-12. Retrieved 2013-11-24.〕 During the Spanish–American War some military hardtack was stamped with the phrase "Remember the ''Maine''". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「hardtack」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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