Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Doomsday Cracker


No not Daryl.  Different kind of apocalyptical cracker.

Hardtack for World War III.

Make plain bland ancient war-ration unleavened crackers great again.

How do you feed millions of Americans when they are hiding from Soviet fallout in shelters under bridge abutments and basement of municipal libraries?  They are only down there for a few weeks, but them No. 10 cans of Hormel Chili and Underwood Devilled Ham might not stay preserved over time.

If the nukes go flying THIS year you are fine, but what if it takes 15 - 20 years for things to come to a head?

You need long term storage options using only 1950s technology.   Things may last, but it can be a crap shoot.   You need something guaranteed to last.  No fats to go rancid.  No liquid to harbor pathogens or leave a microflora to encourage the growth of the nastier microfauna.

Tada!  Low salt saltines fit the bill.  BIG ones. Well sorta

Bulgur wheat!  That's the ticket.


 Just need 150 million pounds of it made and distributed, now.  Well, then.  1960ish.

Since, if you recall, there was no thermonuclear war, what happened to all them crackers?  Well, there were sent as food aid to Niger and Chad 10 year after they were made.


2 comments:

Comrade Misfit said...

Hardtack is easy to make, but use a recipe that includes salt. It'll hold up for years.

LCB said...

In the early 70's they had these stockpiled at my Jr High School. Ton's of nasty crackers and big 5 gallon metal "cans" that were empty with a plastic bag in them meant to hold water. It was obvious no one cared about them, because year after year each new class of 7th graders would rummage through and open the crackers, thinking the unopened ones would be "fresh". Blech!!!