My son & I are interested in Byzantine history. In reading some of his references I came accross mention of hardtack, or "twice baked bread". It was called "paximata" in Greek in those days. It seems that hardtack has been a soldiers basic ration for a millenia, at least. Probably much longer than that. An interesting variation added dried fruit and meat.
A marginal note to an ancient book on seige warfare described another compound ration made with sesame, honey, oil, and ground almonds. The oil & honey was brought to a boil, then the ground almonds and sesame added and simmered & stirred until it thickened. It was divided into balls & dried.
There was mention that grains in those days had enough food value to provide a satisfactory diet for several months, if other resourses were not available, like meat on the hoof or locally available produce. Elsewhere it noted the obvious, that yields were less than nowadays. Also, stone grinding of flour left the state of dental health in very poor shape!
It seems that crop improvement stressed high yields to the detriment of quality.
My son mentioned "spelt", as an ancient grain that had much better food value. Mister Google provided this link;
http://www.spelt.com/Has anyone any other information on the use of these old varieties? It seems that recreating the past might be a lot of fun, and tasty as well! In the near future, I will try some hardtack recipes.