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Tak Snacks (Smørrebrød)

A plate of open-face Danish-style sandwiches, "Tak Snacks" as seen from the side so you can see the sausage and herring standing up like standing stones on the Tak board. [1]

Tak Snacks

A plate of open face Danish-style sandwiches, as seen from above, arranged in a checkerboard pattern. The sausages are cut into half-round coins, and the herring is cut into trapezoids. [2]A plate of open face Danish-style sandwiches, as seen from above, arranged in a checkerboard pattern. This time garnishes (lingonberry jam and sundried tomato) are visible [3]

Snack #1

A plate of open face Danish-style sandwiches, as seen from above, arranged in a checkerboard pattern. These are the vegetarian sandwiches, featuring roasted red bell pepper cut into half round shapes, and pickled artichoke hearts cut into trapezoids. [6]

Snack #2

For the sausage, herring, or veggie replacements cut into Tak playing piece shapes: Cane or Miter.

In fancier establishments, these bites will be pre-assembled in the order shown above, with one piece of each ingredient stacked up. Each individual open-faced sandwich should be approximately one- or two-bite sized to keep players hands free and clean for playing. Assembled, each sandwich should vaguely resemble a move on a Tak board square with either a Cane (sausage or mushroom) piece or a Merchant (herring or artichoke) piece on top. Very fancy plating of this hors d’oeuvre alternates the dark pumpernickel squares with the light rye.

In more casual locations the ingredients are served on a platter for players to assemble themselves, usually during their opponent’s turn.

*Pumpernickel bread may contain cornmeal, and both pumpernickel and rye may contain corn syrup. If you make your own though, these breads can easily be corn-free.

**Good luck determining the exact spices in available pickled herring, often they’re just listed as “spices.”

I wrote this recipe as part of a stretch goal competition for the @TakBoardGame [8] Kickstarter, which you can find until May 20, 2016 at tinyurl.com/takgameks [9] #takgamerecipe. After that I’m sure you’ll be able to find information from the creators Patrick Rothfuss [10], author of some truly wonderful books, and James Ernest [11], designer of some truly wonderful BRAIIINS … I mean games.

I was attempting to think of a recipe that reminded me of (European) epic high-fantasy foodstuffs–mead, meat pie, ale, pasties, etc–but yet was snackable and kept your hands clean enough for playing a game. This is essentially an aesthetically-designed version of Danish open-face sandwiches, Smørrebrød. You can honestly put anything on these that you want, but as you can see from the blog, we’re focused on avoiding several food allergens, so we don’t use staples you might prefer, such as cheese.