Saltside Chews

"Saltside Chews, how does one introduce something so simple, yet so varied in its execution? The crutch and the staple of those whom would and do travel parts of Suranth in the old ways, by dogsled, foot, or ox drawn sledge or wagon. So culturally significant that even in this modern age you'd be hard pressed to find a household that did not keep some on hand, or a family beyond those that are first generation Suranthi that does not have their own preferred formulation. These nutrient dense chewy tack cakes of sorts were for a very long time the backbone of tundra travel, allowing one to travel even if food was scarce, like through much of the winter. However in that history, what started as merely honey, oats and dried kelps, with a lot of sea salt to insure preservation for a long period evolved over time from that humble beginning. Recipes exist now with diced bits of jerkied meats and fish, dehydrated bits of fruit or vegetables, all manner of seasons and spices with the sea salt that keeps them preserved and edible for such a long period of time. A truly historic dish, a founding staple of Suranth, it is a thing that must be experienced for any cultural connoisseur, both the humble origins and ideally some of the elevated and evolved regional family recipes."

Mechanics & Inner Workings

So to fully appreciate this dish and its significance, and growth, I would highly recommend first trying the original recipe, the base formulation. So the following recipe and instructions are for making traditional Saltside Chews. Then I shall also provide my own family's spin Seaberry Saltside Chews, a hearty spin that my own grandmother passed down to me father, whom passed it down to me. Though their humble history is but a subsistence tackbread of sorts, this second recipe will show you how, whilst maintaining that purpose and being an excellent staple dish to have a stock of for those harder parts of the year, they can also be truly elevated, delicious and a real treat for the tastebuds.

Traditional Saltside Chews Instructions

Now to make these traditionally follows quite the process. But that is not unexpected, this would normally be a project for a mother (or grandmother) of a household or family. Or in the case of the military of course they had an entire system of mess staff who's responsibilities were as such. However how this was handled was quite simple, just time consuming. Whilst you are getting the water boiling and bubbling properly, you would mix the honey and sea salt well and truly together, until the salt is not clumped, but well spread throughout the honey. Once the water is well and truly boiling, you would then slowly add the oat and kelp mix, stirring thoroughly the entire time. It is best added slowly, ideally insuring the water continues to simmer even as you are using a lesser fire. Once you have all the oat and kelp mix added you wish to let this porridge of sorts simmer, boiling off water until it becomes the consistency similar to the honey, less liquid and more almost a malleable thick but pourable...sludge for want of a better word. At this point you will wish to further reduce heat to a barest simmer, and slowly begin drizzling in the salted honey, mixing well as you do so. Once the honey is added and the mix is thoroughly thickening up, continue applying a low and slow simmer to the mixture, stirring well to insure minimal burning until the mixture becomes quite clumpy and semi solid, far less viscous. The goal here is to boil out as much water as possible, whilst still insuring a limited amount of malleability to the mixture.

Once you achieve such a state that you are satisfied with, you will need to remove the mixture from heat. At this point you will need several large trays that you can put into a proper charcoal oven. Suranthi standard is pewter or cast iron trays that are 3/4" deep. It is recommended you lightly coat these dishes with some sort of thin oil, something light in flavor, or perhaps the tiniest bit of melted butter. You will wish to pour out this mixture, spreading evenly, to fill these trays. Depending on the size of these baking trays or sheets how many you will need will vary. You will need to insure you have the mixture spread as evenly as possible across these trays. Once this is done, whilst they cool to room temperature, stoke the charcoal stove. You will wish the stove at a goodly temperature, somewhere between a proper bread baking and the temperature you would prefer for roasting a heavy meat like moose or caribou. Once you are satisfied with the heat of the oven, insert the trays. You will wish to bake them once for a half of an hour, and then remove them.

Once they are cool enough to touch, they should be cut, a task that will prove a labor, but is well doable, into squares roughly 2 inches by 2 inches, though these need not be perfect. Once this is accomplished, return them to the trays, and back into the oven, which should be kept at nearly the same temperature, for another 3/4 of an hour, before removing them. At this point in the process, they should be quite dried out, the water all but cooked out of them, however the salted honey mixture insures structural integrity, as the salt will have helped prevent the honey from burning and boiling off. Let them cool and harden for an hour. Once this is done, there you have it, a batch of traditional Saltside Chews.

According to data kept by the Suranthi Military, so long as an individual has ready access to enough water (or with the military more likely ale or rum) a person can march all day, covering a good full day's travel, 30 to 40 kms, on naught but six of these little squares, and I can attest that this is perfectly reasonable and accurate. They are not a diet I would recommend as a long term plan for one's health, but as far as travel rations go, or a filling snack, or in the harder and less plentiful times of year as something that lasts and goes a long way for the price, they are as advertised and work exactly as one would expect. They are a bit hard on the teeth, but the honey mixture does help them be less abusive then proper tack bread, and the salt is balanced nicely with the honey mixture, so though they are salty, it is not chokingly so.

Sea-berry Saltside Chews

Now this recipe brings me back to growing up. I did not know it at the time, though I do now, a big part of these delicious and filling little treats was trickery. I thought I was getting sweets and though I was, what they really are is a unique way to insure I was getting to indulge my sweet-tooth as a child whilst still insuring I was eating rather healthy. Yet in spite of that trickery, I have naught but fond memories of this staple of growing up, and still to this day keep a supply of these in my household, as do my siblings and their families.

Following the steps of the initial recipe, you add the berry mash to the honey and salt, and the salmon is added to the oats and kelp. Once the water is boiling you follow all the same instructions as above, with the same timings and all. During this process, at times the smells might tickle one's nose in a strange way, but I would bid you to follow through to the end, for though the fish smell might dominate the preparation and parts of the boiling and cooking process in an uncomfortable way, by the end of this all, the end result is truly delightful, a sweet, salty and savory oatcake chew that is a delightful treat for the taste-buds, and yet an amazingly long lasting staple food that is nutrient dense and will keep for months, with a similar benefit as the traditional chews, where one can subsist comfortably, even traveling the harsh tundra, with but a handful of these small cakes to eat over the day so long as one has enough fluids as well. It is a very size effective ration, and a great snack food to keep in a household that will go the distance even in a family setting.

Item type

Consumable, Food / Drink

Raw materials & Components

Traditional Saltside Chews Ingredients

So for a proper batch of Traditional Saltside Chews, you will need the following ingredients. They are best made in quite large batches, thus I shall be following a rather famous traditional recipe, standard issue from the annals of the Suranthi Military. Should you wish to shrink or size up the batch simply multiply or divide ingredients accordingly.

• 3 pounds of mixed sundried and ice-chilled oats and shredded slateweed kelp, roughly mixed at an even ratio.



• 2 quarts of melted honey



• 1/2 quart of boiling water



• 3/4 pounds of sea salt

Sea-berry Saltside Chews Additional Ingredients

You will need all the same ingredients listed above for the original chews, however, this unique twist has two other very key ingredients;

• 1/4 a pound of smoked and salted salmon, shredded.



• 1/2 a pound of mashed blackberries and cranberries in roughly an even mixture.