Making Hardtack and 1-2-3-4 Cake

Yesterday's two sessions were two of the messiest I can recall - and the most fun!  Forty-one of the Edot students between the two sessions managed to go a step further than the "hands-on" activity I had planned - they turned it into an "elbow-deep" activity. Hands, elbows, entire arms were involved in the preparation of what turned out to be quite a sticky 1-2-3-4 cake dough.

So what are hardtack and 1-2-3-4 cake?  We've been studying about the pioneer Jews of the American west, and one of the best ways to bring the past to life is to re-create recipes that come from whichever era and geographical location we're studying. Many Jews who participated in the Gold Rush earned their living by becoming peddlers. The peddlers had to carry as much as 100 lbs.on their backs, traveling 300+ miles until they had sold off enough of the goods they carried, to go back to their supplier and re-stock. Much of the time they were alone on the road, and often had to walk 50-100 miles between farmhouses or settlements. They had to carry their own food. Obviously fresh food didn't last very long, so dried foods were what they carried. One of the staples of their diet (and especially for peddlers trying to keep kosher) was hardtack - a very hard biscuit that could last for months and wouldn't mold easily or attract bugs. The hardtack was so hard, that you couldn't just bite into it-  you had to suck it or dip it in water to make it edible. It was also referred to as "teeth dullers" and "sheet iron." And if a peddler ran out of it, it was easy to make - he just threw together flour and a bit of water to make the dough, a little bit of salt for taste if he was lucky enough to have some, and then baked the dough over the hot rocks left from the campfire overnight, while he slept. By morning, it had cooled down and was hard as a rock, easily carried in his pouch.

The 1-2-3-4 cake was originally referred to as "Cup Cake" and for good reason. Back when most people couldn't read, it was important to create recipes that were easy to remember. The recipe for the 1-2-3-4 cake was simply to throw into a bowl 1 cup of butter, 2 cups sugar, 3 cups flour, and 4 eggs, mix it altogether, and bake it 'til it turned brown on top. If a pioneer housewife was lucky enough to have sugar on hand, this was a very popular recipe. The result was a dense, but tasty treat.

I'm going to put one or two pieces of hardtack into each student's "gold pouch" (see my October 18th post), for them to take home, or on our gold rush field trip if they're participating. We'll enjoy pieces of the 1-2-3-4 cakes we made during this week's Tuesday and Wednesday sessions.

Below are some shots I caught: (I had to clean dough off my camera, but thankfully the lens stayed clean!)

Step 1: Roll the dough (prepared by me at home) into a square shape...

Sometimes two arms were needed to roll - not necessarily from the same person!

The dough should be rolled to about 1/2" thick

Step 2:  Measure 3" squares to cut out  (this was obviously a 4-man job!).

Once you cut the dough, and pierced each square with holes on both sides, it was ready to bake.

Oh oh - this isn't a 1-2-3-4 cake; it's a 1-2-3-4-5 cake (5 fingers to get the dough off your arms and fingers)!

Who said baking was easy?  This is back-breaking work! Hopefully the result will be well-worth the effort.