This morning we ventured back in time to make a historically accurate Thanksgiving food item- Ship’s Biscuits (also known as Hard Tack).  Ship’s Biscuits would have been served at most meals.  They were traditionally made so that they were rock hard (or as Rachel puts it they should have been called Brick Biscuits) so that they could be stored for long times.  To eat them, settlers would have placed them in milk, tea, gravy, or water to soften them up.  They were also sometimes used as utensils in that they could push food on to their spoon using them therefore not wasting any delicious gravy. 

To get started we assembled our ingredients (all traditional) as well as some modern day cook utensils.  

First we added 4-5 cups of flour.

Next, we added a few dashes of salt for flavor.

Then we added enough water to moisten the dough and make it stick together, kneaded the dough, and rolled it out to a half an inch thick.

We baked them for 15 minutes at 375 degrees.

Dr. Cook agreed to be our taste tester (after we offered him some honey to sweeten the deal!)

The reason we offered honey and not jam or butter is that the Wampanoag Indians could have brought native honey to the first Thanksgiving and we wanted to be authentic.   Dr. Cook gave us a thumbs up and declared our hard tack (ok it was more like medium tack and not as hard as the pilgrims would have made it since I didn’t want anyone to break a tooth!) not only edible, but yummy!

Feel free to experiment and make some Ship’s Biscuits to your Thanksgiving Feast!  Happy Thanksgiving from my class to yours!  May you enjoy time with family and friends, feast until your full, and be grateful for all that you have.

Love, Mrs. Sinone and the Room 11 Crew