Watch Stew (Hardtack Soaked in Salt Pork Broth)
A hearty porridge of salt meat boiled long, into which ship's biscuit is crumbled to soak and become edible. A few onions, some pepper, and there's the everyday meal.
A hearty porridge of salt meat boiled long, into which ship's biscuit is crumbled to soak and become edible. A few onions, some pepper, and there's the everyday meal.
No feast today, lad, just the stew. You throw the salt pork into the cauldron, boil it long to drive out its salt rage, and break the biscuit in to soften it — else you'll leave your teeth in it, and a toothless pirate scares no one. It's heavy, it's greasy, it sticks to your ribs when the wind picks up. You don't eat for pleasure that day, you eat to stand the watch.
- •Salt pork or beef from a barrel, desalted — one piece per mess (protein)
- •Ship's biscuit (hardtack) — several (starch)
- •Onions — a few (aromatic)
- •Peppercorns — to taste (spice)
- •Softened seawater / barrel water — enough to cover (broth)
Watch Stew (Hardtack Soaked in Salt Pork Broth)
A hearty porridge of salt meat boiled long, into which ship's biscuit is crumbled to soak and become edible. A few onions, some pepper, and there's the everyday meal.
Why this dish? The daily bread — or rather the daily biscuit — of every sailor and pirate in the Caribbean: boiled salt meat and ship's biscuit softened in the broth. Between prizes, Rackham's crew lived on this unglamorous slop, bellies full to stand the watch.
No feast today, lad, just the stew. You throw the salt pork into the cauldron, boil it long to drive out its salt rage, and break the biscuit in to soften it — else you'll leave your teeth in it, and a toothless pirate scares no one. It's heavy, it's greasy, it sticks to your ribs when the wind picks up. You don't eat for pleasure that day, you eat to stand the watch.
Ingredients (period version)
- Salt pork or beef from a barrel, desalted — one piece per mess (protein)
- Ship's biscuit (hardtack) — several (starch)
- Onions — a few (aromatic)
- Peppercorns — to taste (spice)
- Softened seawater / barrel water — enough to cover (broth)
Ingredients
- Half-salt pork belly or salted ham hock — 400 g (protein)
- Stale country bread or thick rusks — 4 slices (starch)
- Onion — 1 large (aromatic)
- Coarsely ground black pepper — 1 tsp (spice)
- Water — 1.5 L (broth)
- Bay leaf — 1 (flavor)
Method
- Desalt the meat in cold water for 1-2 hours if very salty, then drain.
- Put it in a pot with water, the studded onion, bay leaf and pepper; bring to a simmer.
- Cook gently for 1 to 1.5 hours until the meat is tender.
- Crumble the stale bread into bowls, pour the hot broth and a piece of meat over it.
- Let the bread soak for a minute and eat with a spoon, piping hot.
How it was made : Ship's biscuit was baked two or three times to make it nearly indestructible — at the cost of rock-like hardness. It had to be soaked (in broth, coffee or rum) before eating, and was tapped on the table to knock out weevils. Meat, preserved in brine in barrels, had to be boiled long to become edible again.
The contemporary twist : Serve it as a 'pirate lobscouse' in a tin mess bowl, with a hardtack biscuit perched on the rim as a wink.
Sources : Janet Macdonald, Feeding Nelson's Navy: The True Story of Food at Sea in the Georgian Era (2004) · Charles Johnson, A General History of the Pyrates (1724)
Calico Jack · Charactorium