Good, Old Fashioned hardtack - just like yer great grampy used to break his teeth on

OK, I have been doing a little more testing and am now very pleased with my homemade hardtack. By good fortune, the finished product of a 4-cup batch seems to almost perfectly fill a 3lbs coffee can. That makes for a nice keg - and mostly airtight to boot!

Equipment used:

• Bread machine
• 1 3/4 inch round biscuit cutter (smallest cutter of a $4, 3 piece set from Wal-Mart)
• oven
• cookie sheets

Materials used:

• 4 cups flour - 2 cups white, 2 cups whole wheat
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon yeast
• 1 1/2 cup hot water (plus maybe a tablespoon if it comes out a tad dry)

Yeild: about 1440 caliories in 110 biscuits.

I set the bread machine to Dough Only. 90 minutes later, I take out the dough and roll it out to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut bunches and bunches of little biscuits, and lay them out on a floured (not greased) cookie sheet, about 1/4 inch apart. Scoop up the left over dough, mash it and flatten it out to about 1/4 inch thickness, repeat cutting and placing biscuits. Keep going 'til you can get no mo biscuits.

Pop in the oven at 350° for 20 minutes (until golden brown) let cool for a couple hours. Heat to 200° for a couple hours. Let cool (repeated cooling 'sweats' out the moisture) Heat to 200° and bake some more.

This makes a biscuit that can fit in your mouth - so it can soak up some saliva before you try to crunch it. They are a little fluffier than the regular flat dough kind made with bisquick, so they crunch up better -easier on your teeth. They are essentially flour in an edible form (a handful or 4 makes a nice snack.) I have considered grinding them back into flour and seeing if I could make some kind of bread. They do mix very well with soups and such - and break down well in coffee.