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K Ration Biscuits Original Recipes


mach1derful
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I put a lot of effort into reproduction WWII rations and I know many other hobbyists and reenactment groups do the same. However I just wasn’t satisfied with the old cellophane wrapped club crackers to supplement the K Ration biscuits.

 

So today my kids and I made the original K1 recipe using the listed ingredients and a 3-D printed biscuit mold. All the ingredients were easy to find at Walmart and Publix besides the soy flour I had to order from Amazon. 

I experimented with four types - I made a batch with parts by weight and another parts by measure. I also made two batches of each using a very thin biscuit and a thicker type. Original biscuits I see in both a packet of four thin biscuits and a packet of three thicker types.

 

I used a coffee grinder to make my own coarse oat flour from oats.

 

There were no directions for valentines but 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees did the job.

 

In conclusion the thinner biscuits were closest to my original examples and were consistently crispy through the biscuit while the thicker ones were chewy. The recipe with ingredients parts by measure I thought tasted better than parts by weight. A little sweeter although a little darker in appearance than the parts by weight. So IMO if you want the best “true” example to the original defense biscuits follow the recipe parts by weight and ensure you roll the dough think before cutting. 

 

While the 3-D printed biscuit cutter was nice and imprinted the biscuits with the holes and manufacturer like the originals it didn’t cleanly cut the dough to an edge so I had to hand-cut each of them along the edge. I think it would be better to make my own metal mold.

 

I will be listing the biscuits on Etsy if there is any interest out there to improve your impression. 
 

When they are baking they smell delicious. They are hard to describe the taste. Most modern starch is enriched bleach flour so the mix of wheat whole wheat and soy flour and molasses stands apart from club crackers!
 

 

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Wife suggested using pork lard as the shortening since it would be more correct for the period. I’m going to redo making all thin biscuits with the parts weight recipe with lard for shortening. I think that is as good as they are going to get. If I can get my heat sealer working again I can set up the cellophane wrap and compare them side by side to my originals.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Isn't it amazing with all our newer "knowledge" how we are just as unhealthy as ever? Lard and pan-fried steaks were the norm back then. Not that many didn't/don't have heart disease but with better exercise that generation might have outdone us even in health ways. We've really improved ourselves!

Kudos on the recipe work. Very interesting. Now for gum and cola!

Dave

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  • 3 weeks later...

This is really interesting! Thanks for sharing! That's sure a fun experiment and they look amazing!  

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