Sailor Boy Pilot Bread

[Zack]

Hi folks. I've been reading in some books on Alaska I have and heard here on this web-site about Pilot Bread. It looks like a thick Nabisco cracker to me. Crackers ae cool, some thing to eat with chili or cheese and smoked fish. Anyway I got on Amazon and thought I'd order me out a box just to have the experience of having tasted genuine Saiolr Boy Pilot Bread and they were going to charge me around 20 bucks for a small box of the thangs. So, I'm here asking instead.


Is there any real difference between a regular ol' 'Nabisco' or 'Krispy' brand cracker and pilot bread? Taste any better? Just the same?

Are they that much more expensive than regular crackers up there in Alaska? Man, they would have to taste a whole lot better for me to put out that much money when I can buy a one pound box of 4 cellophane inner packages of crackers for around three dollars.


Zack

 

[ruffle]

Years ago I/we regarded pilot bread (the brand you mentioned) as bare-bones survival food.

They're far more durable and thicker than a saltine cracker. They won't go soggy on you aboard a boat quite as fast as saltines will. Less salt in the flavor, and made with white flour. Not much flavor to them. More or less a delivery mechanism for what ever half-decent nutritional stuff you wanted to ingest without having to merely stick your fingers or a spoon into what ever it is that you're -really- trying to eat.

That's my opinion on the things.

They're a decent source of carbohydrates if you're into fast, refined carbs. I gave up on such sources of carbs for other reasons.

Personally I wouldn't pay $20 for a box of pilot bread unless they came with a 30-year-old blonde woman, weighing about 130-140 lbs., standing at about 5' 5" to 5' 8", and smiling a lot, to shovel them into my mouth for me. Perhaps then, I -MIGHT- pay $20 in freight for a box of pilot bread... Though my wife thinks not...

But thanks for the memory of destitute days gone by..

In short, they're survival food for most persons with a reasonable sense of taste. Think: "bannock from a factory, pressed in fairly uniformly-sized circles.."

For some they might be a comfort food; the taste reminding them of some phase, place, or episide in their life.

I guess if you run out of sheathing for a temporary structure, you could use them as siding. But due to their coming in rounds rather than square shapes, even that would be difficult..

 

[Marcus]

You got it . . .

You got it . . .

Years ago I/we regarded pilot bread (the brand you mentioned) as bare-bones survival food.

They're far more durable and thicker than a saltine cracker. They won't go soggy on you aboard a boat quite as fast as saltines will. Less salt in the flavor, and made with white flour. Not much flavor to them. More or less a delivery mechanism for what ever half-decent nutritional stuff you wanted to ingest without having to merely stick your fingers or a spoon into what ever it is that you're -really- trying to eat.

That's my opinion on the things.

They're a decent source of carbohydrates if you're into fast, refined carbs. I gave up on such sources of carbs for other reasons.

Personally I wouldn't pay $20 for a box of pilot bread unless they came with a 30-year-old blonde woman, weighing about 130-140 lbs., standing at about 5' 5" to 5' 8", and smiling a lot, to shovel them into my mouth for me. Perhaps then, I -MIGHT- pay $20 in freight for a box of pilot bread... Though my wife thinks not...

But thanks for the memory of destitute days gone by..

In short, they're survival food for most persons with a reasonable sense of taste. Think: "bannock from a factory, pressed in fairly uniformly-sized circles.."

For some they might be a comfort food; the taste reminding them of some phase, place, or episide in their life.

I guess if you run out of sheathing for a temporary structure, you could use them as siding. But due to their coming in rounds rather than square shapes, even that would be difficult..

And then some . . . :ditto:

 

[Coaldust]

Here is a link to a good article that Seth Kantner wrote about Pilot Bread. http://www.adn.com/2012/03/10/2364193/what-did-the-manufacturer-do-to.html . In short, Interbake Foods, LLC started adding tertiary butylhydroquinone and artificial flavor (MSG?) to the recipe in 2011. There was no good reason for the company to mess with a decades-old Alaskan staple. Zach, your not missing anything.

 

[Zack]

Ahh, you all have confirmed my suspicions. A cracker by another name is still a cracker. Yet another way to congeal flour into an edible substance to then eat with other things because by itself it is tasteless.

Man, I could make a lot of bannock for 20 bucks. I couldn’t see what the hubbub was about, it looked like a cracker to me. Think I’ll stick to my Nabisco crackers for 3 dollars a pound, they go great with chili. Zack

 

[.338-06]

Pilot Bread is basicly hardtack. Supposedly 98% of the Pilot Bread made in America ends up in Alaska. Pilot bread will last a lot longer than regular crackers. Look up hardtack.

 

[hodgeman]

Yeah..not a cracker. Thicker. Way tougher. Hardtack sounds right. Unreal shelf life...heck, never heard of one going bad. Not sure it could unless it absorbed a lot of moisture and went mushy on ya...up here in the "dry as a popcorn fart" Interior they likely have the shelf life of sheet tin.

I break one out every year or so and eat it with some of my canned smoked salmon spread across the top. More or less for nostalgia's sake from more meager times. I'd sure hate to try to live on the things for any period of time but better men than I sure have.

Kinda like Xtra Tuffs and Carhartts....part and parcel of the Alaskan experience even if they make something better nowadays.

 

[Daveintheburbs]

Shoot me your adress and I will put one or two ( of indeterminate age, but pre 2011) in the mail.

 

[akshootnscoot]

Just don't eat too many at once, especially with melted cheese on them. They make great "plugging compound"

 

[JR2]

My kids love them, you can make mini pizzas, bp& j, melt cheese on them or any number of things. I remember them being boat food while commercial fishing mostly and they were used more like a spoon than a food.

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[hogfamily]

Ahhhh Sailor Boy a staple food in Alaska villages. I have been in at least 100 village homes throughout Alaska and I don’t remember ever NOT seeing a box of Sailor Boy.

The first time I was invited to dinner in an Alaska Native home we had fish quak, (raw frozen fish), dipped in seal oil. For dessert we had tea with Sailor Boy. That was the start of my love of Sailor Boy crackers.

http://tundratantrum.blogspot.com/2009/11/thirteen-ways-to-eat-sailor-boy-pilot.html

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/rural-alaskans-pilot-bread-soul-food

And of course Robot loves his Sailor Boy crackers.

 

[kasilofchrisn]

I just ate a couple with salmon dip on them and they were very delicious.
They even stock it for us on the North Slope oilfield camps.
nothing like a saltine at all and they do lack flavor but I like them with salmon spread or homeade jelly or even peanut butter on them.
If eating them with just peanut butter on them just be sure to have a beverage close by as it is pretty dry.

 

[AKpegleg]

If your paying 20 bucks for a box you are getting ripped off

 

[yukonjeff]

Around here in the villages there is a box or two in every house, fresh bread was and is still hard to come by and even harder to keep fresh in the village stores, so everyone eats them as a staple, and more importantly they travel well, I always bring them on hunting trips,comerical fishing or anywhere else for that matter bread would be crumbs riding in the sled or boat in the grub box but the heavy duty crackers hold up well. and can sit on the shelf for extended periods and not mold or go bad

we eat them with dry fish,spam, chease in soup,with PB&J and about everything else you can think of.there is not a more perfect food for this country next to dry fish it even comes in a heavy duty cardboard box.

here is one of my personal favorites

 

[JR2]

Hey this is off topic but do you have a recipe for your salmon roe?

To the original poster, pm me your address and I will mail you a box of pilot bread.

John

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[yukonjeff]

Not realy a recipe I just find a ripe fish if you can I use chum roe, if your fish is not ripe its a bit of work picking the eggs off the skein and just soak it in a heavy brine overnight and the eggs seperate better then rinse with cold spring water several times and drain it real good the pieces of membrane will float up if you swish it around like panning for gold its then ready to eat...keep it refidgerated and it keeps well.

Oh and you can try it with cream chease on a Sailor boy Pilot bread

 

[Contender]

Interesting post gang. I always take a couple of boxes of pilot bread to moose camp and other outings. I boil a bunch of eggs before going to camp and each morning our group always eats a couple of hard boiled eggs for the protein and a PB&J made with pilot bread. We wash this down with coffee made the night before and stored in an old 2 quart Stanley Thermos jug which will keep coffee scalding all night long even if setting out in the freezing temperatures.

It is rather tasteless but lends itself well to whatever you want to eat it with.