[PW] ? "soft hardbread

[FERGUSON Timothy]

One way of making softer hard tack would just be to not bake it until
for quite so long. One of the other respondents pointed out that this
would inhibit the bread's antimold qualities, and I agree, but I'd point
out that in Walden he is giving provisions for, is it a week?, so
perhaps this would not be so much of a problem.

Another would be to make it Scandinavian style, which has extra fat in
it and this makes it softer, although, again, this makes it mould
faster.

A lot of your colonists come from countries that make griddle breads and
these are sometimes unleavened. 

America also has a couple of native forms of flatbread based on corn.
Tortillas were known and used by some of your colonists in the southern
areas, I believe. Also, your johnnycakes (said by some to derive from
journey cake) aren't leavened, or at least aren't always leavened.  I
know that again I'm having him pan fry things which doesn't seem in the
spirit of the quotation.

-----Original Message-----
From: project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org
[mailto:project-wombat-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org] On Behalf Of
Cramer, Jeff
Sent: Thursday, 17 April 2008 23:30
To: list at project-wombat.org
Subject: [PW] ? "soft hardbread

For an excursion to the wilds of Maine Thoreau recommended bringing
"soft hardbread" - a term which seems somewhat oxymoronic. Elsewhere in
his writings he mentioned simply hardbread. I have been trying to figure
out what he could possibly mean by the term "soft hardbread." Since
hardbread is an unleavened bread or cracker, such as hardtack, by
extension, soft hardbread could be simply a soft unleavened bread, such
as flatbread, nan, lavash, etc. However, I can find no reference that
shows that anyone in mid-19th century Massachusetts (Concord, to be
specific) would be aware of such breads. 
 

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?

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