[PW] ? "soft hardbread

[Cramer, Jeff]

John,

I truly appreciate the suggestion. 

I've also come across something called "soft tack" which is basically load bread. The strange thing is that Thoreau mentions bringing 28 pounds of "soft hardbread"! If he meant loaf bread, he wouldn't be able to keep it from molding in the middle of summer on the river in Maine.  

Again, thanks,
Jeff



Jeffrey S. Cramer, Curator of Collections 
The Thoreau Institute at Walden Woods 
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-----Original Message-----
From: project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org [mailto:project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] On Behalf Of John P. Dyson
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 10:41 AM
To: list at project-wombat.org
Subject: Re: [PW] ? "soft hardbread

Quoting "Cramer, Jeff" <Jeff.Cramer at walden.org>:

> My question is two-fold: I?m open to any other interpretations of the
> phrase ?soft hardbread? and is it possible that anyone in mid-19th
> century Massachusetts would have been aware of any kind of flatbread?

Jeff,

A sailor in Massachusetts (or anywhere else) at the time would have 
been aware of such a staple for travel. Hardtack or hardbread, known 
during the Civil War as tooth dullers and weevil castles, was durable, 
portable and could be crumbled up and softened as a thickener in about 
any liquid.

This is a guess, but "soft" hardbread was probably intentionally 
underbaked in order to take a little longer for it to reach the 
consistency if not the flavor of cedar shakes. Perhaps the baker 
skipped the part where little holes were pressed into the dough to make 
it bake faster.

You did say "any" suggestion...

John Dyson

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