Lesson Plan #9
Salt Junk and Ship’s Biscuit
TOPIC: The diet of the Royal Navy during the Revolutionary War
OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to:
1. Describe the diet of the Royal Navy during the Revolution
2. Prepare and cook a typical meal for a sailor
3. Identify potential health problems arising from such a diet
PROCEDURE:
I. The Royal Navy Diet
A. Ask students what they think sailors in the eighteenth century, aboard wooden-
hulled sailing vessels, ate.
B. The Royal Navy diet consisted primarily of salt beef, salt pork, peas, oatmeal,
butter, cheese, ship’s biscuit (also called hardtack or ship’s bread), and a pudding
made of flour and suet. See the handout “Diet and Recipes” for more
information.
C. This diet could be varied with fresh fish, meat, and vegetables, but this was rare.
D. Other things, such as dried fruits, could be used to spice up the bland diet a little
but these items were used sparingly since a ship did not have space to store a lot
of extra things.
E. All of a sailor’s food had to be boiled as a ship’s galley did not have the room to
bake or grill food for the large number of men on board.
II. Cooking and samples
A. Sample a sailor’s diet
i. A sample of the basic diet could be prepared easily in a class if the Sunday/
Thursday menu is followed as salt pork is readily available in most groceries.
ii. Hard tack, or ship’s biscuit, should be made ahead of time and could be made
by the students in their first class session.
B. Other navies and civilian ships carried similar items that could be used to build a
broader theme of a sailor’s world.
i. For example, many American ships carried dried sliced potatoes that were made
into a hash with salt beef.
ii. The American diet included onions and turnips that were no doubt added to
the hash.
C. Additional recipes are provided to create other items in the diet of common people
during the Revolutionary War period.
MATERIALS/RESOURCES:
Diet and Recipes sheet in handout form and on transparency, if desired, and sufficient ingredients to make selections sufficient for the entire class.
ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION:
Student assessment
will take place through their interaction in preparing and cooking selected
items, by their attention to following directions, and by their responses in
being quizzed.