Lobscouse
Stew with corned beef, bacon, potatoes, and hardtack (clack clack)
City/Region: United States of America
Time Period: 1907
The cooks onboard sea vessels didn’t need to be the strongest sailors, nor indeed even very good cooks. Working in cramped kitchens that often only had a small stove with an oven, kettle, and cauldron, sea cooks were adept at turning out stews and other boiled foods, but not much else.
This lobscouse checks all the boxes for the 18th and 19th century sea cook. It’s simple, easy to prepare, and is real stick-to-your-ribs food that would fill up a crew. The dominant flavor comes from the corned beef, and while the hardtack softens nicely, it tastes like flour if you get too big a piece. Overall, I think it’s actually pretty good. Feel free to add other meats and vegetables if you’d like, such as leeks or carrots.
“Lobscouse
Soak four thick slices of corned beef in fresh water for two hours. Fry four slices of salt pork or bacon. In the fat fry four sliced onions a light brown. Place in a stewpan the beef, onions and pork or bacon. Add a dozen sliced potatoes, cover with water and season highly with pepper. Cover and stew gently until the meat is tender. Then break into the stewpan four sea biscuits, cook for five minutes longer. The liquor may be thickened a little more with a tablespoonful of flour mixed with a little cold water. ”
Ingredients:
Hardtack
- 8 cups (900 g) whole wheat flour
- 2 cups (475 ml) water)
- Sea salt, optional
Lobscouse
- 2 thick slices corned beef*, chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 2 slices salt pork or fatty bacon**, chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 2 medium onions, chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 6 medium yellow potatoes, chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
- 2 pieces of hardtack
*You can use fresh beef, just add some salt. **Use something really fatty like lardon. You want about 90% fat.
Instructions:
- For the hardtack: Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
- Mix the flour and water together until it forms a dough. It’s going to be a dry dough, and you can add more water to it if you’d like to make it easier to work with, but the drying time later will be longer. Knead the dough for 15 minutes until it becomes nice and smooth.
- Divide it into 12 pieces. For Civil War era hardtack, cut it into squares. For seafaring hardtack, roll each piece into a ball. Press them down (I used a plate) to about 1/4” to 1/2” thick. Place the hardtack discs onto lined baking sheets. Poke holes with a skewer throughout each biscuit so that they look like giant Ritz crackers.
- Bake for 3 hours. After 3 hours, turn the heat down to 200°F (95°C) and bake for another 3 to 4 hours until they clack clack.
- For the lobscouse: Soak the corned beef in water for a couple of hours to draw out some of the salt. If you’re using salt pork, soak that as well.
- Fry the bacon or salt pork in a large pot over high heat until most of the fat has melted. Add the sliced onion and stir so that the onions are evenly coated in the fat. Reduce the heat and fry the onions until they are lightly browned, about 7 to 8 minutes.
- Drain the corned beef and add it to the pot along with the potatoes. Add just enough water to cover everything. Stir in the pepper. If you’re using fresh beef instead of corned, add a couple of teaspoons of salt now (you can add some salt if you’re using corned beef, but you probably don’t need to). Bring the lobscouse to a simmer, then cover and let it cook for 45 minutes.
- Put the hardtack (clack clack) into a bag and beat them with a mallet or hammer to break them up into small pieces. Really give it what for. The smaller the pieces are, the better.
- Stir the broken hardtack into the lobscouse. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes. Taste and add more salt or pepper if desired. If you’d like the stew to be thicker, mix 1 tablespoon of flour into a little cold water, then stir that into the stew. Cook for another few minutes, then serve it forth with some grog for a true seafaring meal.