Hard Tack

[Claire Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Claire]

When I was a girl I ate hard tack in my grandmother's house. My grandparents bought it in a large, round package. In the package there were many thin, dark, rounds of hard tack, each with a large hole in the center. I remember thinking they were like the big long playing records we had in those days. (33 1/3 rpm) My grandmother explained that this rye "bread" was made this way so it could be stored up in the ceiling of the house. It was dry and warm there up by the roof so the hard tack would last a long time. My grandmother would break open the package and snap the large rounds into smaller pieces that she could fit in a cookie tin. She made her own butter from cream in the milk pail and this homemade butter was served with hard tack.
I still have a taste for hard tack but must buy it in postcard shapes in a paper package marked "WASA". It is made in Sweden and imported to us in Canada. It is commonly found in any grocery store here.

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

Hard Tack - Knäckebröd

When we were children our parents bought Knäckebröd in packages as Claire described. When my father grew up in Finland his family made it in large quantities and put a pole through the holes and hung it in the ceiling. Here in the US my mother's mother made it and shipped it in barrels to where her children lived. She usually did that at Christmas time. Here is a picture of the bread on a pole. Although Wasabröd is made in Sweden, people in Finland also make it. We make it but not in the round shape.

JuneKnäckebröd

June

[Gita Wiklund Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Gita Wiklund]

In Sweden it´s possible to buy Knäckebröd in the round shape. I like the round sort the best. It´s very good with Kalles Kaviar . Have you tried that?

Gita

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

Hard Tack

No, haven't tried caviar. I like it with lots of butter, or peanut butter and even jam! When cousins visited from Finland I took them to the supermarket and told them to choose something they would like to eat - they chose Wasabröd and also some of our dark wheat bread. I squeezed juice from oranges on my trees and they said it was too sweet! They thought I put sugar in it, but we don't need to add sugar. Freshly squeezed orange juice is naturally sweet. They said they had never had Florida oranges - only oranges from Spain. And my grapefruit is so sweet one doesn't need sugar on it, so it was a new experience for my relatives.

June

[Gita Wiklund Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Gita Wiklund]

I´m drinkin orange juice right now, and I can´t say it´s sweet. It´s sour, and I think most of us up here in the north like it that way, it´s normal to us. Of course if I lived in Florida I would probably have a completely different opinion.

I find it hard to imagine peanut butter on knäckebröd. In fact I think for most swedes it´s hard to imagine it on any bread. You find it in stores but it´s not a big seller here. No I stick to my Kalles!

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

Hard Tack

I'm a peanut butter fanatic and eat it on a lot of things, such as a peanut butter sandwich with mashed bananas spread over the peanut butter! It's good protein instead of meat. It was almost unknown in Finland some years ago - I took some to relatives there and they didn't know what to do with it. I like the kind with chunks of peanuts in it - yum.

June

[Claire Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Claire]

Yes, June. I vote for peanut butter too. It is really a North American taste, for sure!

I like hard tack with peanut butter, peanut butter and honey, peanut butter and jam, tuna fish and especially smoked salmon.

[Gita Wiklund Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Gita Wiklund]

Well, you americans seem to be very fond of sweet food. One of my favourites is knäckebröd with butter, sliced fresh potatoe and herbal salt. It´s delicious..