The oldest existing ship’s biscuit dates from 1852. True fact.
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What do you put this on?
Smashed taters, natch! 
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And is probably still good to eat. When I toured the Cutty Sark in the mid-90s, the guide was a WWII vet who had served in the Navy. He told us when he first enlisted in '39, their rations included biscuits left over from the Great War.
Imagine eating a baked good older than you are.
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Hardtack is traditionally baked, then baked again at a lower temperature (200-250F or so) to get all the moisture out. The stuff that went on ships was baked four times, then aged a minimum of six months before going out on the ship.
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For when the inevitable glut of courgettes/marrows comes we will be making this
It’s very much like lemon curd except the base is marrow rather than eggs, which gives it a lighter texture and stores well even outside the fridge.
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I once found a carton of sea ration Marlboro’s. Wax Carton. Had to have been 25 years old. I was around 25. Not food, but close! They were still actually kinda tasty. HARSH AS SALT though.
Wax can make an excellent seal. (to keep this on topic) 
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“Sea ration”? Like, for the ocean or sumpin’?
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I’ve found…well, manymanymany recipes from the newspaper in the house and garage since my mom’s death and before. More so since I’ve been cleaning up. I have shelves of cookbooks that were never used, to my knowledge. Here’s a fun sample of something from Pillsbury, which perhaps came inside a box of cake mix or something, judging by the folds:
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US Navy issue. They were sealed in wax, at least 3 dips. It was a standard thing for storage in ships, where the holds weren’t always so perfectly dry. 10 packs. Wish I hadn’t opened it, but I was a kid (23?), and it was cool, and now someone else’s are more valuable.
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Ah, I grew up hearing about “C-rats”, my dad having served in WWII. One of those weird homonyms.
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Here’s the other side of the above leaflet; the top recipe looks delish, the other…ewucghgghhg!!!
(But that’s just me.)
I’ve got collections, too, of Pillsbury Bake-Off Winning Recipes, if anyone’s interested.
As for baking, the last thing I made was ? were? whole-wheat milk-chocolate chip cookies. My baking is well-loved, and I like that. I like the whole thing about baking. It’s chemistry, it’s fattening, it smells great!
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I’ve been stuck on breads for so long now.
I did learn a great bread trick. A little bit of cornstarch. It holds on to some water for you. It’s nice, I accidentally made mcdonalds hamburger buns the other day. I will write it down next time!
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I tried to make a hamburger with hot sauce cooked into it. It didn’t work the way I wanted it to, but the meat absorbed all the spicy vinegar flavor so it tasted like Chinese stir fry. Not bad, but not what I wanted. If I had to try it again, I would mix some gelatin and hot sauce together, refrigerate until firm, then put them inside stuffed burgers.
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That’s…kinda cute.
But that won’t work; the gelatin will melt. And burn. And stink like burnt horses’ hooves, unless you use flavored gelatin, in which case it will smell like burnt-fruit-and-horses’ hooves.
Did you mix it in with the meat prior to cooking? Like, knead it in?
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Anyone have a good vegan mac n cheese recipe?
My nutrition doctor suggested it and I found a chickpea pasta that works pretty well for the nongrain diet I’m on.
He suggested nutritional yeast, so I made a version with sweet potatoes blended with nutritional yeast, some almond milk, part of an onion, and some spices. It was not like, wow, that’s going to give Kraft a run for the money, but it was promising.
I’ve been google-fuing up some stuff; the ones that sound the best, of course, have a lot of fat in them. Also verbotem. The one that seemed most promising was made with cashews and some truffle oil. I feel like maybe in moderation these could work.
I’m also open to the idea of a “sauce” that is not really cheesy per se.
I can always do a veggie + pasta thing but I think the sauce satisfies the urge for something remotely resembling comfort food, which is one of the main downfalls I have on this diet with low salt, no grains, no dairy - pretty much every single comfort food is off the list.
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Kenji at Serious Eats is my go-to for all things vegan and delicious. i’m vegetarian, not vegan, but i’ve made many of his vegan recipes and they are all just killer.
i’ve been on a bread-baking kick for years now, and i think i’m getting decent at it. if i could chuck everything and just make bread all day, i’d do it.
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Yeah, but now you have a cool story whereas they just have an expensive pack of cigarettes.
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I mixed the hot sauce in with butter, refrigerated the butter, then cubed it and mixed it into the beef.
I thought of gelatin as an alternative to the butter because of American cheese. It’s doable, but I have to be careful to not burn the gelatin.
I could simply freeze the sauce, but that would be worse than the butter.
Maybe the butter was the correct approach, and I just did it wrong.