On Wednesday my quilt group had its Christmas meeting at which we always have a Jacob's Join. You probably know this better as a 'pot luck' where each member brings along a plate of food to share. I'd never heard of the term Jacob's Join before I became a member of our group. And it wasn't until I did an internet search to find the origin of the name that I discovered it's a term used mainly in and around Lancashire (though strangely there were lots of mentions in North Carolina too!). No-one seems to know why it's called a Jacob's Join but the most common suggestion is that it has biblical origins and is related to Jacob and the 7 year famine during which he sent his sons out to bring back food.
Whatever the explanation, every year I agonise over what to take. I usually aim for something savoury as there are always plenty of desserts. It needs to be either something I can make in advance or something very quick as I don't have much time between getting home from work and rushing out to the meeting. And it has to be cold as I never fancy trying to transport hot food in the car.
They were such a success that I decided to do something similar this year but with a slight change of ingredients. A Google image search for salami canapes found a picture showing a canape which used a slice of salami, a slice of cheese and an olive. For the olive haters, I decided to substitute a ribbon of cucumber. Look pretty good, don't they? Appearances can be deceptive. The cocktail stick didn't do a good job of holding the sides together and they soon fell apart. They also didn't stack well on a tray as the cocktail sticks got in the way. I fiddled and twiddled and couldn't figure out how to get them to work. Time for a rethink.
The simplest solution was to stack the ingredients onto crackers so I did an eleventh hour dash to our local shop and picked up some oatcakes and wheat crackers. Next predicament: the salami slices were just too big to sit neatly on top. Out with the pastry cutters. Un-fluted side for the salami, fluted side for the cheese, and a smaller one for the cucumber.
And these were the finished canapes. After a couple of false starts, I was really pleased with the results. But do you know what? Out of 15 that went to the Jacob's Join, 10 came back home with me. Sigh.
I obviously didn't hit the spot with these. Maybe they looked too bland? Or there were a lot of salami and/or cheese haters? In any case, I need to up my game next year. So, dear readers, please help a fellow blogger, what's your favourite and sure-fire winner of a dish to take to a Jacob's Join?
I'm not sure why your canapes weren't devoured - if I'd been there, you wouldn't have brought any back home :D Those salami canapes in particular are very festive looking - perhaps if you used toothpicks that have a coloured end on them (you've probably seen them at gatherings), that way only one end could possibly slide off. I quite often bring layered dips to gatherings - guacamole, salsa, black beans, sour cream, grated cheese, chopped olives on top - you'll find recipes for this everywhere online. Easy to put together a day ahead.
ReplyDeleteJust realized I had meant to add that spearing an olive and perhaps a cube of cheddar cheese on either side of the toothpick on the outside would also help hold things together and look quite attractive :)
ReplyDeleteThey look delicious, but sometimes things get lot in amongst lots of other food. I learnt the hard way that un-iced fruit cakes don't sell at cake sales, no matter how good they might taste, but anything made with chocolate or covered in icing sells straight away.
ReplyDeleteYou could take a quiche or tart next time? Or anything with smoked salmon always goes down well. x
They do look good! But from your photo it looks as if there was a TON of food there. I don't have any particularly impressive recipes because I'm usually looking for something that kids will eat, i.e. sausage balls, pigs in a blanket, etc.
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