The Patriots, the original people in America who opposed British rule, ate what is called hard-tac. This is a dense biscuit of flour water, maybe some oil or flavoring if you are lucky, and baked at high temperature. This made a kind of flour jerky. It was a hard dry biscuit that never spoiled. The soldiers/sailors could keep it for days, months, in some cases years. It would never go bad. I have eaten it, raw, meaning that it was not steamed or soaked in water. It was hard as a rock. This was the 1600s version of MREs. Get a squirrel or rabbit, or deer, to go with it, and you got yourself a meal.