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Readers' choice: Top 10 all-time favorite recipes

Here's a list of the most popular recipes from Stir It Up! since we first launched in 2009.

9. Civil War recipes: Hardtack crackers and Confederate Johnny cake

Kitchen Report
Hardtack crackers made with whole wheat flour alongside Confederate Johnny cakes. Hardtack crackers were a main form of (despised) sustenance for all Civil War soldiers.

By Kendra Nordin, Kitchen Report

Hardtack crackers
Some recipes omit shortening

2 cups of flour
1/2 to 3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon of Crisco or vegetable fat
6 pinches of salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Mix the ingredients together into a stiff dough, knead several times, and spread the dough out flat to a thickness of 1/4 inch on a non-greased cookie sheet.

3. Using a pizza cutter or a knife, cut dough into 3-inch cracker squares. With the flat end of a bamboo skewer, punch four rows of holes, four holes per row, into each cracker.

4. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, turn crackers over on the sheet and return to the oven and bake another 30 minutes. Cool completely.

Confederate Johnny cake

2 cups of cornmeal
2/3 cup of milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt

Butter
Molasses

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Mix ingredients into a stiff batter and form 8 biscuit-sized "dodgers." Bake on a lightly greased sheet for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

3. Or, spoon the batter into hot cooking oil in a frying pan over a low flame. Remove the corn dodgers and let cool on a paper towel, spread with a little butter or molasses.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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