Hardbread

Hardbread was a type of bread that was eaten in Faerûn.

Description
It could be baked in the form of buns, rolls, or loaves, as well as thin-sliced crackers.

Usage
Hot hardbreads were sold in many typical village taverns, often in winter when food became scarce. One dish was slices of hardbread fried in leek butter, usually served in poor, cheap, or rural places.

Hardbread was also a staple of traveling armies, together with stew, leading to the saying in Common that "armies march on bread and the bowl." Army cooks would bake or buy many rolls of hardbread before setting off.

For sweet dishes, hardbread buns or loaves studded with currants were enjoyed as a morningfeast meal. These were sometimes cut into fingers. It was a growing trend to dip these into the drink known as thrusk in the mid–14 century DR. For a plain dessert, such as found in rural inns and small-town restaurants, hardbread slices could be sprinkled with sugar or spread with jams made from local berries.

Availability
Hardbread was known to be eaten as a snack or part of a meal in the following settlements and establishments:
 * The Lady Luck Tavern in Daggerford, which serves cheese on hardbread.
 * The Way Inn on the Trade Way, north of Daggerford, where they baked big oval-shaped loaves of hardbread. They toasted the stale leftovers for their bustard on buns dish.
 * The Pleasing Platter, a restaurant in Triboar, usually in winter.
 * The Wemic Comes to Westbridge, a restaurant in Westbridge, usually in winter.
 * The Six Shields, a rooming house in Ashabenford, where a stay included two meals of hardbread, cheese, and milk each day.
 * The village of Maskyr's Eye in the Vast, where farm-folk had hardbread spread with bloodlick for meals. For dessert, thin-sliced hardbread was toasted and spread with brambleberry jelly or wild honey when it was available in summer.
 * In the city of Uthmere in the Great Dale, where vendors sold hardbread buns containing cold sausage, smoked fish, or cheese with local sauces for a midday meal, or "highbite".

History
When prepared Volothamp Geddarm for a visit to Barovia in the Domains of Dread, Elminster gave him a pack of food including hardbread, as well as other supplies and vampire-fighting equipment.

Background
The footnote on Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast page 37 defines "To us, hardbread is a rye cracker—or Scandinavian crispbread." A 2009 comment from Ed Greenwood describes it as like biscotti and a 2019 comment implies it is a rusk. However, other mentions of hardbread imply it is more like a regular bun or loaf, rather than a cracker, suggesting it comes in different varieties. However, for clarity, this article assumes it is distinct from rye bread.