I'm supposed to be packing to move, so naturally, I've decided to make a batch of hardbread, or 'biscuit'. I usually start with the recipe in Mark Tull's "The Packet", and tweak it from there. I don't follow Tully exactly, though, because he states thattwo cups of flour and a half cup of water (with half a tablespoon of salt) will make a single biscuit, 4 inches in diameter and 5/8ths inch thick, and thus half a daily ration of bread. I've found that it makes closer to four such biscuits, while still being half a ration.(at a pound a day) I decide, though, to try something else out, as well. My last batch of biscuit is now about 2 years old, about as old as the "salt junk" I have in my fridge. This is about 10 rations each of beef and pork, buried in salt and saltpetre. I had tried a bit of the beef, baked for a bit, but today, I'm trying a bit of the pork, fried in bacon grease with broken bits of two-year-old biscuit. To be honest, 2 year old pork is a little scary; I believe I had my methods correct, but if not, this could have me sick, if I eat much. (That's why I haven't even fried up half a ration) I have added nothing to the mix, just to keep it simple. It's actually not bad, so long as your definition of "not bad" allows for tough, salty pork! The pork looks fairly normal, and is about the same color as the biscuit.I can see, though, why the salt junk was usually soaked overnight, to leech out much of the salt. This will definitely be the last time I skip THAT step! The bacon grease softened the hard biscuit a bit, but there are still hard bits.both, however, are salty enough as to be almost impossible to distinguish from each other. With the proper soaking, I suppose I could do well enough, provided I also got the pease, cheese, butter, oats, etc. That were also part of the standard ration. Hmm. I' about halfway through my concoction, about 3 ounces of pork an the same of biscuit, and I think I've hit my US RDA of salt for the next two and a half decades. Forget what I said about "nor bad", this stuff is pretty much inedible. Next time, I'm doing the soaking!