Given that hardtack was devised as a highly durable cereal and source of starch, can you use it to thicken soups and stews?

Hardtack was developed simply as a durable form of bread. The baking process drove out any moisture that could result in mold or spoilage. This has been known since antiquity.

In the American Civil War, soldiers found that the best thing to do with their hardtack was to smash it under a musket butt and put it in the soup or coffee. Federal soldiers might make “skillygalee” by “soaking the hardtack in cold water and then browning them on pork fat and seasoning to taste.” (From “The Life of Billy Yank: The Common Soldier of the Union,” by Bell Irvin Wiley, 1952.) Yum!

Hardtack was called pilot bread on ships, and the name is applied to the equivalent modern product. A variety of this was sold in New England for many years but it is most popular today in Alaska.

And apparently hardtack will be in our future. On “The Mandalorian,” they have “travel biscuits.”