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Post by subdjoe on Oct 11, 2008 18:58:55 GMT -5
Ah, hard tack! Good stuff. Soak it in your coffee to soften it enough to eat. Or fry it up in the grease rendered out of your salt pork. If you have to you can gnaw on it. Other terms for it are iron sheets, tooth breakers, worm castles. There are stories of men carrying some in their breast pockets who were saved by a bullet hitting the cracker and not going through it - there are pieces of hard tack that seem to confirm some of those stories. Here is a little song about the joys of hard tack. www.civilwarpoetry.org/union/songs/hardtack.html |
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Post by Mink on Oct 12, 2008 16:13:04 GMT -5
Those sutler sites sure make for fun browsing. Followed a site for "cookies" that turned out to be crackers - "nothing but water and flour." Somewhat disappointed. Regarding JMO's post on Mollydooker wines (I'm in the wine biz), they are definitely a good value if you enjoy the style - thick, big fruit, plenty of oak, high alc./low acid, a bit sweet. You can currently find them for a great price at Bottle Barn in SR. I have a question on a wine being "thick". I'm no connasieur but I've never heard of that term. Have you tried the Two Buck Chucks at Trader Joe's? Very cheap but great! |
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Post by subdjoe on Oct 14, 2008 9:31:23 GMT -5
Just another term for "full bodied." I expect that soon they will start using "rubenesque" ;D
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Post by saunterelle on Oct 14, 2008 10:06:22 GMT -5
Sounds like they only kept "hard tack" around as a last resort, if they were near starvation. If you've tasted the many versions of power bars we have nowadays, quite honestly, I doubt they taste much better.
Mink, Joe's right about the term "thick." Often you find thinner wines come from cooler climates and thicker wines from warmer climates. Mollydooker comes from Australia's Barossa Valley, one of the world's warmest winegrowing regions. To get a sense of the difference, imagines sipping nonfat milk (thin) and then half and half (thick). Thickness (or "weight") is determined by alcohol content, sugar level, oak treatment, and glycerol content in the wine.
$2 Chuck is an interesting phenomena and some bottles can be great for the price. Unfortunately there is also a lot of variation bottle to bottle, even within the same vintage. To make $2 Chuck (and most wines at very low price levels) they buy finished wine off the bulk market (wine from other wineries that didn't make the cut and is being sold off cheap) and they "fix" it (oak chip treatment, filtering / fining, reverse osmosis, etc.) and then blend it to create an enjoyable wine.
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Post by subdjoe on Oct 14, 2008 12:29:02 GMT -5
Hard tack was standard issue. It was actually better then soft bread (which crumbled or went to mold very quickly) or flour (which you had to somehow make into a dough and cook) for on the march. The real problem with it was that it was often wrapped before it was cold, so it got moisture trapped inside the paper, this led to it going moldy and becoming infested quickly. Pilot crackers (or biscuits) are sort of close to hard tack.
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Post by JustMyOpinion on Oct 14, 2008 18:21:39 GMT -5
saunterelle, I prefer full bodied reds and one of my favorites is the Cakebread Cab. My friend splurged for a bottle one year for our Birthday celebration since our Birthdays are 20 days apart, and I hated to take the last drink it was so good. I don't know the year unfortunately it might have been a 2000 or so. Have you ever been to the Casanova Restaurant in Carmel, and if so did you get a look at their wine list? El Paseo in Mill Valley is another restaurant with an amazing selection! I agree about 2 buck Chuck! It can really vary from bottle to bottle and I say no thank you! Pepperwood Grove (Sebastiani) is a decent cheap wine, especially when Safeway has it on sale. I usually buy the Chardonnay (2006) and have tried the Merlot and Cab, they're ok. I think it's way easier to drink a cheaper Chardonnay than a red. For some reason cheap reds are usually bad and I stay away from them. When Safeway has the Murhpy Goode Cab on sale I'll buy it, it's good. Thanks for the Molly Dooker tip! Where's my glass...  P.S. Trader Joe's does offer some other good wines for cheap (not $2), and I always ask for help instead of wasting my time and money. Another place where the sales people really know their wines is Cost Plus in Larkspur, and only Larkpsur apparently. The Larkspur store does their own wine tasting and buying instead of relying on what the warehouse sends to them. They are very knowledgeable and I usually don't fail there when looking to buy a gift for someone. |
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Post by JustMyOpinion on Oct 14, 2008 18:24:33 GMT -5
subdjoe, I too enjoyed your links. I will investigate them more over the next few days. My father will love them!
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Post by Mink on Oct 14, 2008 23:35:36 GMT -5
I wish I knew as much about wine, but I do favor the whites, which is probably why I enjoy the two buck chucks. I don't do Cabs but most recently have begun to like zinfindels and a little merlot. I favor the fume blanc most especially, if I am to drink it, but I mostly love cooking with wine. I love what it does to spaghetti/ ravioli, beef stew, I even put it in my corned beef, but love it in the shrimp scampi........  |
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Post by saunterelle on Oct 15, 2008 13:30:52 GMT -5
JMO, Cakebread does make an excellent Cab and pretty much all of Sebastiani's wines are great values! I've never been to Casanova in Carmel but will be sure to check it out next time I'm down there. Locally, I've found Mirepoix in Windsor to have a well chosen, well priced wine list.
Mink, I'm a white wine lover too, especially when it's warm out. Next time you're at Trader Joe's, pick up a bottle of the 2006 Bear's Lair Viognier ($3.99) if they still have it. It is so good for the price and it bested many of the $15 - $20 white wines we had in a recent blind tasting.
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Post by Mink on Oct 15, 2008 19:58:22 GMT -5
JMO, Cakebread does make an excellent Cab and pretty much all of Sebastiani's wines are great values! I've never been to Casanova in Carmel but will be sure to check it out next time I'm down there. Locally, I've found Mirepoix in Windsor to have a well chosen, well priced wine list. Mink, I'm a white wine lover too, especially when it's warm out. Next time you're at Trader Joe's, pick up a bottle of the 2006 Bear's Lair Viognier ($3.99) if they still have it. It is so good for the price and it bested many of the $15 - $20 white wines we had in a recent blind tasting. Thanks for the tip saunterelle! I also enjoy Viognier...I'll definitely check it out. I have a question regarding French wine. I had the opportunity to enjoy this fine French wine at a party. The wine appeared to be an amber color.....it was so good and like JMO, I was embarassed (kind of), because I couldn't stop drinking it while others were socializing, I was babysitting that bottle ;D |
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Post by JustMyOpinion on Oct 15, 2008 22:33:36 GMT -5
saunterelle, here is the link for Casanova: www.casanovarestaurant.com/Be prepared to invest in a meal! Lunch isn't too bad, and brunch is another option to save a dollar or two. The food is very good and it is worth the money for a special occasion. I really like the atmosphere it is not pretentious especially during the day. Here's a bit from the site regarding the wine cellar: Casanova's wine cellar was hand dug 14 feet under the restaurant in 1987. Walter Georis, one of the owners, has carefully developed the list to include a large variety of local and international wines. The cellar is now home to about 30 thousand bottles of wine and is the annual recipient of the Wine Spectator Grand Award.
Visits to the wine cellar can be arranged through the Maitre D'.
Walter Georis is also a wine maker. He produces the family Merlot from Georis Winery in Carmel Valley.
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Post by saunterelle on Oct 16, 2008 11:11:06 GMT -5
Looks excellent JMO, will have to make a special trip. Mink, certain French wines can be eye opening experiences. To figure out which one you had I need a little more info. Do you remember what region it was from or any of the words on the label? Take the budometer test and let us know your results: www.budometer.com/cgi/loadinterview.cgi |
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