Cynthia Nims - Salty snacks: Make your own chips, crisps, crackers, pretzels, dips, and other savory bites

Copyright 2012 by Cynthia Nims
Photographs copyright 2012 by Jennifer Martin

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Nims, Cynthia C.
Salty snacks : make your own chips, crisps, crackers, pretzels, dips, and other savory bites / Cynthia Nims. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: This collection of more than 75 recipes for savory chips, crisps, crackers, pretzels, breads, nuts, and more puts a fresh, crunchy spin on homemade snacks Provided by publisher.
Includes index.
1. Snack foods. I. Title.
TX740.N564 2012
641.53dc23

2012008152

eISBN: 978-1-60774-182-4

v3.1

Many thanks to those who contributed their expertise, time, talents, and taste buds to the process of bringing this book together. For starters, I thank chef friends who helped me hone particular techniques, ideas, and recipes, including Kathy Casey, Matt Costello, Christina Orchid, Maxime Billet, Dana Tough, Marcia Sisley-Berger, and Adam Sappington. In the gluten-free department, friends Jeanne Sauvage and Shauna Ahern offered valuable input: many thanks! And I very much appreciate Barbara J. Pyper, MS, RD, offering me her ear to discuss nutritional aspects of snacks. When it came to gaining an industry perspective on the current state of interest in the world of salty snacks, Ron Tanner at the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade was most helpful.

I relish any chance to delve into the historical perspectives of a food or beverage subject. The context and frame of reference we gain by understanding the roots of what were enjoying today makes the eating experience that much richer. A wide range of references, books, websites, even a History Channel hour devoted to the history of salty snacks all enhanced my appreciation of these foods. Two favorite references I turn to regularly for a bit of historic input on food are The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink edited by Andrew F. Smith, and The Food Timeline at www.foodtimeline.org.

Special thanks to friend/neighbor/writer Susan Volland, whos always willing to jump in to help with a persnickety recipe, a bit of brainstorming, a critical editors eye, and general encouragement.

Many thanks to my team of recipe testers: Michael Amend, Jeff Ashley, Mary Pyper, Barbara Nims, Ed Silver, Cathy Silvey, Dick Wood, Cathy Sander, and Tracey Wickersham. And thanks to the great many tasters who offered feedback and advice to help fine-tune the recipes over the months.

Im thrilled to work with such a talented and enjoyable team of folks at Ten Speed Press. Cheers in particular to my editor, Lisa Westmoreland, whos got a keen eye for clarity and is a great collaborator. Thanks, too, to art director Betsy Stromberg, designer Colleen Cain, publicist Kara Van der Water, and publisher Aaron Wehner who oversees such a great crew. And to Jennifer Martin, thanks for the luscious photos.

Finally, a big and loving thank you to my amazing husband, Bob, who is always willing to go with the flow of whatever project is in the works. Snacks again for dinner? No problem, he said at each instance. Thanks, Love.

Cheers to you all.

Without a doubt, salty-crunchy is my favorite food group. When declining another dessert or passing on the chocolate chip cookies, Ive long explained it by saying that I have the opposite of a sweet tooth. A salty tooth, if there is such a thing. Any time salt and savory flavorings meet something thats crisp and snackable, Im happy: tortilla chips, nuts, popcorn, crackers, and the most beloved of all, potato chips.

So I like to think of this book youre holding as something of a salt-lovers answer to all the cookie and sweet-treat cookbooks that come out each year. It is a book for everyone who has a salty tooth like me.

As a kid Id not only snack on potato chips out of the bag but layer some between the peanut butter and jelly on a sandwich for a bit of salty-crunchy je ne sais quoi. It was love at first sight with that amazing invention Jiffy Pop, which enchanted by the sheer drama and magic it brought to the simple task of popping corn.

I even gravitated to what seems an unlikely snack for kids: smoked oysters. Nothing fancy, mind you, just those everyday flat tins of little smoky bivalves crammed into tight quarters. Crackers + smoked oysters = happy, even today. So, I was particularly charmed when attending a dinner in Seattle with New York City chef Gabrielle Hamilton while she was on tour with her book Blood, Bones & Butter. The first course included Triscuits topped with canned sardines and a dab of mustard. Its a standard on the bar menu at her restaurant, Prune, echoing memories of foods that sustained her in her earlier years.

So I know Im not the only one with a personal, often nostalgic, attachment to salty treats. What I find interesting, though, is that when it comes to homemade snacks of the savory type, there are far fewer recipe resources at hand than there are for sweets. For whatever reason, were not as accustomed to thinking of salty snacks as a made-from-scratch prospect. Among the first culinary adventures we have in the kitchen as kids is to press a cutter into a sheet of sugar cookie dough, or to stir the walnuts into a bowl of brownie batter. I dont know about you, but I never made rye crackers or savory puff pastry snacks with my mom when I was young. Why is that the case? Its time to stop relegating the task of cooking all our salty treats to commercial producers. Time to make some at home.

Its clear the American population has a taste for salty snacks. In a retail context, it is a bold and dynamic category to be sure. Just check out the chips/crackers/snack mix aisle at the grocery store. In most stores I visit, salty selections dwarf those for cookies and sweet snacks. Extensive research done by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade in conjunction with Mintel International (a global market research firm) and SPINS (a company that analyzes the retail marketplace) shows dynamic growth in the sector. The resulting State of the Specialty Food Industry report cites that snack sales across all sectors, from specialty to mainstream, topped $11 billion in 2010, noting that figure as an 11 percent increase from 2008. As Ron Tanner, vice president of communications and education for NASFT, pointed out to me in January 2012, Americans have always loved to snack. As people are getting more health conscious, theyre looking to find new options. Companies are responding with an ever-increasing array of selections. He goes on to note that there are ingredients you wouldnt think ofseaweed snacks, a lot of root vegetables, lots of international flavorsgoing into snacks these days. In November 2011, the Supermarket News website featured an article called Whole Health: Different Chips, which cited some industry observers estimating that sales of salty snacks could hit $24 billion in a few years time. Thats a lot of popcorn and chips!