Pilot Bread / Hardtack

I was very curious about pilot bread, the modern version of hardtack. What I find really interesting is that it is not sold in stores anywhere on the East coast, even though the company that makes it is based in Virginia.

It appears that I can only get it mail order. Alaska is the main consumer, based on pilot bread having a very good shelf life, but it is not as if noone else in the country might find themselves cut off for days due to natural disaster.

I don't want to buy a 2lb can of it from Amazon, and I don't want to pay shipping on a small box of Sailor Boy pilot bread. I would like to find someplace on the East coast to get it from. But it appears that the product goes directly from the factory to Alaska.

I'm surprised that they don't try to market it to the other 300+ million Americans.

richlevy;584170 wrote:

I was very curious about pilot bread, the modern version of hardtack. What I find really interesting is that it is not sold in stores anywhere on the East coast, even though the company that makes it is based in Virginia.

It appears that I can only get it mail order. Alaska is the main consumer, based on pilot bread having a very good shelf life, but it is not as if noone else in the country might find themselves cut off for days due to natural disaster.

I don't want to buy a 2lb can of it from Amazon, and I don't want to pay shipping on a small box of Sailor Boy pilot bread. I would like to find someplace on the East coast to get it from. But it appears that the product goes directly from the factory to Alaska.

I'm surprised that they don't try to market it to the other 300+ million Americans.

Doesn't hardtack supposedly taste like ass?

They don't sell it in the West that I've seen either, but maybe I'm not shopping in the same stores you are.

Interesting. I have never heard of pilot bread. I wonder what it tastes like?

Mmmm... yummy om nom.

Sounds like my kind of baking. ;)

....Roll the dough out to a half-inch thickness before cutting it with a floured biscuit cutter or bayonet.

...Now put 16 little holes in each one, using a 10 d nail or some other such thing.

This stuff sounds really vile, so of course I have to try making some!

The recipe is really simple.

...or you can just buy 'em. Looks like some camping stores might sell them, although fairly pricey for something so basic. SportAss even sells them.

Baked for an hour @ 400. :eek:

xoxoxoBruce;584292 wrote:

Baked for an hour @ 400. :eek:

Gotta get all the moisture out somehow.

There's a reason they called 'em "tooth dullers." A Civ-War reenactor of my slight acquaintance fascinated his dentist once in an emergency appointment -- he'd busted a tooth on hardtack the previous weekend.