Subject: What is/are Rusks?

From: [email-masked] (William J Gollatz)
Date: 19 Jun 93 22:29:27 GMT

I posted this earlier, but apparently it never made it.

  In two American Civil War diaries of soldiers from western Pennsylvania,
they mentioned that they ate Rusks.  What is it?  I am clueless, and have never
heard it in any of the some 200 books about the Civil War I have, or the some
70 reenatactors I asked about it during the reenactments I took part it.  And
neither does any museum that I inquired about, knows what it is.

  DOES anybody here know?  I am very interested in it.

Thank You for any information.

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From: [email-masked] (Julian Smith)
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1993 06:57:28 GMT

This may well be a frivolous answer...but for the longest time I can
remember, Rusks have been available in the  United Kingdom....as a
cylindrical package containing relatively thick slices of circular
toasted bread.  You put butter or jam on them, and eat them right out
of the packet, though I suppose you could heat them first.  I can't
believe this name is coincidental...perhaps these are the items your
Civil War people are talking about?

Julian A. Smith

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From: [email-masked] (Bayla Singer)
Date: 20 Jun 93 07:19:08 GMT

As far as I know, rusks are a very hard bread-product, similar to our
Melba Toast or babies' teething biscuits.  I daresay they would keep
well for traveling.

--bayla

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From: [email-masked] (William J Gollatz)
Date: 20 Jun 93 21:17:16 GMT

Bayla, Julianne, thankyou.

  I believe I have found the connection.  During the civil war, the soldiers 
diet for the most part included hard-tack - basically the hardest damn cracker
you could ever eat, soldiers broke them with muskets or boiled them in water,
since it was a slim chance that a fresh craker could be kept.
  They were basically baked into thick rectangles.
  Do you think those rusks could have been  a fresher "hard-tack", that 
actually might have tasted good?  I believe the hard-tack was also unleaven
Then, these crackers just became known as hard-tack and accepted vocabulary
I guess.  They also mentioned eating hard-tack later on.  They ate their rusks
early in their enlistment.

  Any comments?  And thanks for the info, a bunch of us were stumped and no
Civil War recipe book has a recipe for rusks, if it is something you cook,
and not a plant, vegetable or fruit.  (Some soldiers preferred tree bark
over hard-tack, it was that bad)

  Bill

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From: [email-masked] (Dawn Friedman)
Date: 22 Jun 93 17:09:43 EDT

>over hard-tack, it was that bad)
  
  I was under the impression that the basic rusk principle is twice-baking:
you take ordinary cake, cookies, or crackers and bake them again to drive
all the moisture off.  Now you've got something that won't spoil as long
as you keep it from getting damp.  But depending on what you start with,
the texture will vary from pleasingly crunchy (rusks, which I think are made
from cookies or thin-sliced cake) to blackboard slate (hardtack).  
  
  Unleavened bread -- matzo, at least -- doesn't need twice-baking to make
it dry as sand and crunchy.  Ever try to butter a piece of matzo?  Anyone for
a plate of "crumb-butter"?
  
  --Dawn
  
p.s.  The flavor issue, of course, also depends on the ingredients more than
the amount of baking.  Matzo is once-baked and tastes like flour, because
it's just flour and water with the water driven off.  A twice-baked cookie
tastes like a cookie.
-- 
[email-masked]  
"There is comfort in a memory and roses just before you cut them down
 But there's danger in most anything
 that's all the better when it's not around..."

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From: [email-masked] (Jane Beckman)
Date: 23 Jun 93 01:03:31 GMT

>neither does any museum that I inquired about, knows what it is.

You mean you never had a grandmother?  Or ate in a tea room?
I have to admit, as a Civil War reinactor, I find rusks to be
a rather unlikely thing to find in the field, but probably
much superior to hardtack!

My grandmother made rusks.  And a tea room we ate at when  was
a kid served them with luncheon.  They're a kind of melba'd
tea biscuit made by slicing up stale sweet rolls and toasting
them in a slow oven.  Very good, but like to break your teeth.
But much less likely to do so than hardtack.  These guys must
have had sympathetic female relatives!
--
  Jilara   [[email-masked]]

"Every now and then, a big rock falls out of the sky, and everyone has 
a *very bad* day."  --from the PBS "Dinosaurs" special.

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From: [email-masked] (L.A.Z. Smith)
Date: 21 Jun 93 19:14:07 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] 

>over hard-tack, it was that bad)

Could it be Holland rusks?  These are round biscuits, with a taste and
texture very much like extra-dry toast.  You can buy modern examples in
the supermarket in the cracker section.

I missed the original posting, so sorry if I'm answering the wrong thing.
Holland rusks are typically used as a base for a saucy dish, rather like
patty shells, but they may have had other uses in the past.

Leah Smith	[email-masked]