What's the savoury equivalent to cookies?
January 3, 2009 8:38 PM Subscribe
I want to make up boxes of goodies as presents for my brothers. Ordinarily I'd make cookies, but my brothers prefer savoury to sweet. So I'm stumped. Is there any kind of savoury/salty homemade treat that keeps as well as cookies and is as easily portable and wrappable?
Oh dang, you said home-made, sorry, I started and got carried away. But you can certainly make savoury shortbread, spiced nuts, and cheese straws.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 8:47 PM on January 3, 2009
posted by pseudostrabismus at 8:47 PM on January 3, 2009
Homemade potato chips, bbq sauce, pickled stuff, duck confit, jams, lemon curd, flavored nuts...
posted by foodgeek at 8:53 PM on January 3, 2009
posted by foodgeek at 8:53 PM on January 3, 2009
There are a LOT of delicious ways to make spiced nuts, from curried cashews to spicy pecans to the basec-but-tasty toasted pumpkin seeds. You could also consider home made potato-type chips, jerky or even roasting your own coffee.
posted by jessamyn at 8:54 PM on January 3, 2009
posted by jessamyn at 8:54 PM on January 3, 2009
My aunt used to make these savory crispy things with twisted puff pastry with a bit of salt and various seeds and spices on top. If you want to go through the effort of making puff pastry (I hear it's a pain in the ass), doing savory stuff with it is drool-worthy.
Also, bread. I live in New Mexico and we consume a ton of green chile cheese bread in it, which has chile and usually cheddar cheese baked into it. It makes the most amazing toast ever.
Meat (or other savory) empanadas are pretty good too.
posted by NoraReed at 8:59 PM on January 3, 2009 [1 favorite]
Also, bread. I live in New Mexico and we consume a ton of green chile cheese bread in it, which has chile and usually cheddar cheese baked into it. It makes the most amazing toast ever.
Meat (or other savory) empanadas are pretty good too.
posted by NoraReed at 8:59 PM on January 3, 2009 [1 favorite]
Dark-chocolate dipped pretzels
posted by Solon and Thanks at 9:03 PM on January 3, 2009
posted by Solon and Thanks at 9:03 PM on January 3, 2009
Spelt crackers or crisp rosemary flatbread. That second one sounds so good I might make it right now.
posted by O9scar at 9:08 PM on January 3, 2009
posted by O9scar at 9:08 PM on January 3, 2009
Try making savory biscotti. It was a big hit with a brother who was in college at the time and always happy to receive boxes of goodies. I had made several kinds, including regular sweet biscotti, using recipes from Gourmet magazine. His favorite was the parmesan black pepper biscotti.
posted by needled at 9:10 PM on January 3, 2009
posted by needled at 9:10 PM on January 3, 2009
Croquettes are not going to last as long as cookies, but I wonder if they might last long enough for your purposes, if you use the right ingredients (e.g. avoiding meat) and make sure they have a good, hard, well-cooked shell.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:11 PM on January 3, 2009
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 9:11 PM on January 3, 2009
Home made jerky is so good. A friend of mine at school's mom made it and mailed it to her. We almost fought over it and it lasts quite a while, as it should.
posted by MadamM at 9:30 PM on January 3, 2009
posted by MadamM at 9:30 PM on January 3, 2009
A/the savory equivalent of cookies is ... savory cookies. Includes recipes for cookies flavored with black pepper, cheese, lemongrass, rosemary, sage, seaweed, and thyme.
posted by librarina at 9:36 PM on January 3, 2009 [5 favorites]
posted by librarina at 9:36 PM on January 3, 2009 [5 favorites]
I believe that Librarina has the winner.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:43 PM on January 3, 2009
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:43 PM on January 3, 2009
You can definitely do savory cookies. I've had blue cheese and rosemary cheesecakes that were fantastic, so I think any of those kind of earthy flavors would translate well.
Also, cheese straws if you're feeling less adventurous. They're really easy.
posted by mkultra at 10:44 PM on January 3, 2009
Also, cheese straws if you're feeling less adventurous. They're really easy.
posted by mkultra at 10:44 PM on January 3, 2009
Soft Pretzels.
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:37 AM on January 4, 2009
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:37 AM on January 4, 2009
cheese-flavored popcorn... Every time I make instant Mac&Cheese.. I usually have tons of leftover cheese powder (cuz I don't like my mac&cheese too cheezy), and I pop some corn and dust it with the cheese powder. yum. Prolly gonna kill me someday, tho.
posted by mhh5 at 2:14 AM on January 4, 2009
posted by mhh5 at 2:14 AM on January 4, 2009
As long as they don't have to ship, and there's no issue with pork, I'll stump for pork pies. They're durable by design.
Librarina's nailed the savoury cookie thing, but I'll also suggest just good, old fashioned, not terribly sweet peanut butter cookies. My grandmother's recipe is more like a peanut shortbread than a sweet cookie... it has that salt/sweet thing going on. If you're interested, memail me. :)
posted by Grrlscout at 3:29 AM on January 4, 2009 [1 favorite]
Librarina's nailed the savoury cookie thing, but I'll also suggest just good, old fashioned, not terribly sweet peanut butter cookies. My grandmother's recipe is more like a peanut shortbread than a sweet cookie... it has that salt/sweet thing going on. If you're interested, memail me. :)
posted by Grrlscout at 3:29 AM on January 4, 2009 [1 favorite]
A nice mason jar filled with the fixins for chili or a nice, hearty soup (minus whatever meat or meat stock he's want to put in) with instructions.
posted by piratebowling at 10:08 AM on January 4, 2009
posted by piratebowling at 10:08 AM on January 4, 2009
Purist Chex mix, with just chex: rice, corn, wheat & bran. Just add extra chex to sub for the pretzels, nuts and other filler.
posted by theora55 at 11:58 AM on January 4, 2009
posted by theora55 at 11:58 AM on January 4, 2009
I make these Cheese Crackers every year at christmas to universal acclaim and adoration. I finish them by shaking them with a little bit of spicy salt which I make by grinding a tiny sprinkle of cayenne pepper and sea salt flakes to a fine dust in a mortar and pestle - this is entirely optional of course. These are those sort of crackers that you start nibbling tentatively and before you know it, you've eaten 315.
Oh, and a cheat - I make triple the dough, roll it into long logs and cut the crackers into coin-like shapes in about 5 minutes... saves rolling out the dough and stamping them out with a cutter, and they turn out the same.
posted by lottie at 2:57 PM on January 4, 2009 [1 favorite]
Oh, and a cheat - I make triple the dough, roll it into long logs and cut the crackers into coin-like shapes in about 5 minutes... saves rolling out the dough and stamping them out with a cutter, and they turn out the same.
posted by lottie at 2:57 PM on January 4, 2009 [1 favorite]
Ooooh... how about making up little bags of "Chili Mix" or "Soup Mix" along with instructions. The Chili could have all the dried beans, spices, dried onions etc.
posted by lottie at 3:03 PM on January 4, 2009
posted by lottie at 3:03 PM on January 4, 2009
Unk - sorry Piratebowling... just saw you had the exact same thought as me re chili or soup mix. We used to make these mixes for backpacking so that we'd have yummy meals by the camp fire, and it's amazing how much of the meal you can ultimately put in a bag dry.
posted by lottie at 5:48 PM on January 4, 2009
posted by lottie at 5:48 PM on January 4, 2009
pepperoni rolls!
posted by thisisnotkatrina at 10:13 PM on January 4, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by thisisnotkatrina at 10:13 PM on January 4, 2009 [1 favorite]
Smoked salmon mini-cheesecakes.
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:11 PM on January 9, 2009
posted by BrotherCaine at 10:11 PM on January 9, 2009
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Cheese straw-type pastry crackers,
Savoury shortbread cookies (with hard cheese grated into them, and garlic & chili flakes),
Little jars of olives & red pepper jelly,
Crackers,
Shrink-wrapped meat stuff like smoked salmon and pate.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 8:44 PM on January 3, 2009