Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-07-20

Hardtack,
A briquet of solid. tooth breaking,
hard baked dough that rife bail
cant, pierce? A jaw buster?
Not at all.
A crisp, brown, palatable cracker.
Not dainty, but a real healthy food
that housewives might use to advan-
tage.
Maybe in Civil War days when il
was baked in seven-incn' squares, two
inches thick. bareback deserves that
nickname; but now its real nanle,
hard. bread, is more appropriate.
Flour for hardtack is mixed in five-
barrel lots. It is dumped into an ell
Optical mixing box, mounted on roll
ers. The mixing room is kept at a
standard temperature of 50 degrees.
The loaded box is pushed under a
faucet and forty-eight gallons Of fl
tered well water, at temperature
of about 80 degrees are added.
The mixing box is then pushed I'M
der the spindle mixer. The spindle
mixer Is ore of the Oldest of modern
bakery machines and also one of the
greatest time savers. As soon as the
box is IN place three steel shafts
about four inches IN diameter are
forced through the floor and water
Six arms shaped like half an aero
plane propeller radiate from each
shaft, each connecting with the shaft
to the right of the one below It,
The dough forms rapidly as the
shafts are revolved. Il trmples, turns
ana assumes gro,es9ue shapes, re-
nltnding the observer Of the peculiar
movements OF growing plants in mo-.
ton pictures. AS soon as tile dough
is free Of lrnlps--usuaiiy in four nl..l-
uies--the mixing is stopped and the
dough given twenty minutes rest"
II may go straight 80 the oven, how
ever. without lnjuring the finished
biscuit
Things happen SO fast when the
dough reaches the oven room that
ones eyes must travel fast to keep
track of one particular batch OF dougs,
from tic moment of arrival to the
closing Of the oven door.
The mixing DON is wheeled in front
of a machine similar in shape to an
oid-Saahioned hand wringer that East
ened or the edge of washttb. :
hopper is Oh one side and sloping plat
form on the cther. A baker gathers
his arms fnil OF dough- It is dumped
into tie hopper to reappcer on the
platform as 3 blanket" The blanket
IS folded and passed to q. man 81 an
other machine, q series Of rollers, cut
ters and dies. that prepares the dough
for tie oven.
Two rollers press the bianket tt
proper thinness for hardtacll. A ro-
tary brush sweeps -four over inc blan-
llet. now 6. continuous sheet of dough,
which Soes through the machine much
like a Tc.l of paper through print
ing PRESS ~
Next 3 die. cutting fourteen wide
and fear deep, irnpresses ard dock
ers" tire biscuits. "Dockers are the
ho.ss in common crackers. They
serve 10 pold tho, dough down while
baking 'rhe biscuits are placed in
the oven on wooden shovels.
The regulation of The oven is the
important part OF bareback baking
The oven, heat must be maintained
steady at 450 degrees. Fifteen minutes
are required to complete the baking.
The intense heat and long time are
necessary to remove every particle of
moisture from the bareback. That is
very essential, Salt is not used in
hard bread making for the reason that
it attracts moisture. Baking powder
and other ingredients sometimes used
in baking ordinary bread have been
found toimpair the life of the finished
biscuit.
After baking, the biscuits are given
twenty minutes to cool This time is
taken travelling down two stories on
an endless chain hoist to the handling
rooms Further time for drying and
hardening is given, il possible, but
the bareback may be packed imme-
diately.
The government regulations re-
quire that bareback be packed in
eight-ounce packages, from twenty to
twenty-five biscuits making this
weight. The biscuits are wrapped in
oiled paper, then inclosed with paste
board box, which is further wrapped