Crispbread substitutes

Commercially the same product sold under different names in different countries, often with slightly different seeding and thickness.

Best for

smorrebrod and open sandwiches, gravlax and cured fish platters, cheese boards, soup accompaniment, Scandinavian breakfast

There is functionally no difference to explain here: the flavour is the same sour, toasty wholegrain rye, and the structure is the same rigid low-moisture slab. The only real variation is thickness. Ryvita-style slabs are heftier and better under a wet topping, while thin Finnish and Swedish rounds are more delicate and shatter more elegantly. If a recipe specifies a particular crispbread, treat any of these as the same ingredient.

Unleavened flatbread baked bone dry, giving essentially the same rigid, snappable, moisture-free structure.

Best for

holding wet toppings, cheese and pate, cured fish, dipping, canapes

Structurally the best supermarket match in most of North America, because it does the one thing that matters: it stays rigid and does not go limp under something wet. What is missing is flavour, since matzo is neutral wheat and crispbread is emphatically rye, tangy and slightly bitter. It is also thinner and shatters into shards rather than snapping into neat rectangles, so score it or break it deliberately before you top it.

Dense rye or pumpernickel sliced very thin and baked slowly until it is completely crisp all the way through.

Best for

the best homemade version, smorrebrod, cheese boards, soup croutons, gravlax platters

The only option that gets both the crunch and the correct rye sourness, and it costs 25 minutes. Slice as thin as your knife allows, lay the slices in a single layer and bake at 300F for 20 to 25 minutes, turning once, until a piece snaps cleanly when cool. The critical detail is that it must be fully dry before it cools, since any residual moisture leaves you with chewy toast rather than crispbread. Brush with a little oil and sprinkle flaky salt or caraway if you want it closer to a seeded knackebrod.

Plain crisp savoury crackers, ideally the thin, hard, unsalted kind sold for cheese.

Best for

cheese boards, pate and spreads, dips, quick canapes

Serviceable and immediately available, with the right dryness but not the right sturdiness. Most water crackers are more brittle than crispbread and will snap in half rather than hold up under a slice of cheese and a spoonful of pickle, so build smaller portions. Seeded seed crackers are the pick of this group, because the seeds add the nutty depth the rye would have brought. Check the salt level, since many are saltier than crispbread and can throw off a cured fish topping.

Small squares or rounds of dense dark pumpernickel sold specifically for canapes.

Best for

cured fish canapes, party platters, smoked salmon bites, cheese and pickle

The best flavour match in the whole list, since pumpernickel is intensely rye and slightly sweet, and it is already cut to the right size for a topped bite. The catch is that it is soft, not crisp, so you lose the snap entirely and the base can go soggy if it sits for more than half an hour. Toast the rounds dry in a 325F oven for 10 minutes and you get much of the crispbread character back.

The gluten-free fallback: puffed grain discs with the right rigidity and effectively no flavour.

Best for

gluten-free platters, toppings that carry the flavour themselves, quick snacks

Be honest about this one. The crunch is right and the structure is right, but they taste of almost nothing and have that airy, styrofoam quality that no amount of topping fully hides. Brush them with olive oil, salt them properly and toast at 350F for 6 to 8 minutes and they improve a great deal. Use them when the topping is doing all the talking, such as gravlax with dill and mustard sauce, rather than under a mild cheese.