9 Cracker Barrel Country Store Foods Everyone Should Try

Before walking up to the host at a Cracker Barrel, every visitor has a decision to make. Will they browse the store before being seated or wait until after enjoying a Southern country-themed meal to shop? Whichever route you choose, there are certain foods available that you don't want to miss out on trying before making your way back to the parking lot.

Part of the appeal of the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store is built into the name. Customers are looking for that retro experience and they see it in abundance with options like specialty treats. These include various candies, a special hand-rolled sweet, or even glass-bottled craft sodas. Among the foods worth trying, you'll also find that a number of Cracker Barrel's popular menu items are available for at-home cooking and baking. As you discover which ones you'll want to bring home, you'll also learn some of the versatile ways the foods can be enjoyed.

Expectations for a trip to a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store are bound to include perusing some classic goods. With Old Fashioned printed on each package, Gilliam Sanded Drops certainly fit the bill. This candy company founded in Paducah, Kentucky has been around since 1927 and truly leans into those roots. The only thing missing from the nostalgia-laden brown paper packaging and the assortment of flavors is the comparable price tag. A century earlier customers would've been paying cents for a package rather than more than $2.50.

As to the flavors of the candies, in store and website availability don't always match as the variety includes: cherry, cinnamon, horehound, licorice, lemon, root beer, and watermelon. Fans describe the sweetness as tempered with the individual flavors coming across as mild rather than overpowering. An added bonus comes from the believed medicinal quality of horehound. Given that some consumers like to use the drops to soothe sore throats, it's worth noting that the herb is considered good for the immune system and has long been included in herbal remedies.

Cracker Barrel first opened its doors in Lebanon, Tennessee in 1969 embracing a Southern theme. Well-suited to that identity, the restaurant chain's stores offer up a sweet treat starring a staple of the south: pecans. Easily fitting in with old-fashioned Southern desserts ready for a revival, Cracker Barrel's Pecan Logs are described as hand-rolled. Whether customers choose the 2.5-ounce or 7-ounce option, both sizes feature nougat coated in caramel that is then covered in chopped pecans, adding a crunch to the soft chew.

Aside from the myriad comments about how delicious the sweet is that can be enjoyed alone or cut up to share, a more specific descriptions liken the logs to candy bars like Payday or Snickers. They are also considered more than worth a road trip if you don't happen to have a Cracker Barrel near you. Given the legwork, they also make for well-received gifts, though the website makes it so you don't have to hit the open road if you don't want to.

As great as the experience dining out can be, there are more than a few reasons that it isn't always in the cards. Addressing that, Cracker Barrel offers a variety of options to bring the tastes of its country kitchen to your kitchen. This includes its Biscuit and Dumpling Mix. Needing only water and possibly a tad more flour, the mix comes ready to get more than a dozen of either option on your table in short order — and that's only the start of the culinary choices.

Highlighting the versatility of the mix, Cracker Barrel's social media demonstrates that simple additions can make for some sweet alternative uses. Only a few extra ingredients can transform rounds piped with preserves into Raspberry Angel Biscuits. Likewise, an extra assortment of baking staples can switch dumplings into doughnuts. Beyond the resourceful recipe options, fans of the mix report adding their own twists when bringing the taste of the chain home. This includes incorporating cheese, garlic, herbs, or spices to pair with the rest of the meal.

Another option to bring the taste of a Cracker Barrel meal home comes courtesy of its jarred Spiced Apple Butter. Available in the store as well as on the chain's website, this spread is said to be the same enjoyed by many on the restaurant's biscuits and corn bread. Mind you, that's really only the start of the options when it comes to adding the flavors of apple, cinnamon, and clove as a topping or ingredient.

A product like this brings out the creativity in foodies. While Cracker Barrel makes note of the application on foods like crackers, pancakes, waffles, or even ice cream, fans of the spread go even further. In addition to comments suggesting it's good on peanut butter sandwiches, blended into cake recipes, or even spooned right out of the jar, a thread seeking ideas raised numerous other possibilities. Some have subbed the spread as dip for sweet potato fries while others use it to top their oatmeal. It can also be added as a sweet element to savory sandwiches by itself, or incorporated into the creation of a barbecue sauce.

Sanded drops aren't the only sweet treat found in Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores courtesy of Gilliam. Purveyors have undoubtedly taken notice of a tiered display in one style or another featuring sizable jars stuffed with colorful sticks wrapped in clear packaging. Foregoing fancy titles, these flavored confections are dubbed old fashioned candy sticks by the century-old creators. Not only do they come in a variety to satisfy an array of different tastes, the typical price makes it reasonably affordable to sample the lot.

Much like the candy's rounded cousin, the flavors are classic. Options abound from bubble gum and butterscotch to watermelon and tutti frutti — which also happens to be an old-school ice cream flavor that's nearly vanished from freezers. Samplers can also choose from cherry, cinnamon, clove, root beer and s'mores. Sales promotions prove its better to bundle as orders of 10 cost $2 compared to snagging some for $0.35 a piece. Whether they go for banana, lemon, passion fruit, or tangerine, fans make sure to stock up during any Cracker Barrel visit.

Every generation has seen popular snacks or treats come and go. While there are many old-school candies in need of a comeback, one company is actually working toward that end. Founded by the Wiesens, Iconic Candy's nostalgia-driven mission has seen the revival of products like Bubble Jug, Creme Savers, and Ouch! Bubble Gum. In 2024, they also reintroduced the world to Altoids Sours with the launch of Retro Sours.

Sold in the familiar metal tin, these candies are offered in an assorted flavors including citrus, mango, passionfruit, raspberry, tangerine, and watermelon. More importantly, the launch of Retro Sours made them available at Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores. The excitement to revisit a taste discontinued less than 15 years earlier wasn't wholly anticipated as those looking for the candy were often met with explanations that the store already sold out. This lead customers to wait a tad longer for resupplies or found them negotiating higher prices in a resale market by those who bought the goods in bulk.

If it's a shortcut to sweet that you're after than the Cracker Barrel Old Country Store has a surefire way to get dessert done with little effort. Though not a menu mainstay, fans of the restaurant chain's fruit-based desserts have had their pick from cobblers made with blackberry, cherry, or peach to a simple serving of fried apples. Whether bought in person or on the website, those same fillings can be brought home in a can for ready use when the mood strikes.

Boasting more than a pound of sweet fruit filling per can, the options need only be paired with a crust and baked in the oven for a no-fuss cobbler. For more of the Cracker Barrel flavor, the Biscuit and Dumpling Mix can be incorporated into the dessert by working it into a crust. Of course, even simpler than that, just like a side of fried apples, each fruit filling can be enjoyed on its own, paired with ice cream, or, as some suggest, as a topping for breakfasts like french toast or pancakes.

Food and candy aren't the only goods at Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores that lean heavily into delivering the old fashioned experience. Short of bellying up to a counter with an actual soda jerk, a taste of decades past can be scored with an array of sodas. Lined up like glass soldiers with front-facing bottle caps tacked onto wooden shelving below each price tag, the assortment includes brands like Boylans, Dad's, Moxie, and Nehi, with variations at different locations.

They may not be among the old-school sodas that time forgot, like Aspen, Jolt, or Koca Nola, but they certainly include various flavors far less common than the typical cola, root beer, or lemon-lime sodas. A perusal of the racks at Cracker Barrel will reveal butterscotch, ginger beer, colored cream sodas, Shirley Temples, and sarsaparilla. On occasion you'll even find some of the big name brands in classic bottles. If you want to skip heading to the store, some of the favorites can be ordered as a 12-pack from the website including Moxie's Original Elixir and Nehi in grape or peach.

Whether you have them when you wake up, when you head out for brunch, or ascribe to a breakfast anytime mentality, pancakes have wide-reaching appeal. From short stacks to teetering towers, Cracker Barrel fans are able to have the chain's buttermilk pancakes fresh from the griddle — or whatever pan you have available — at a moments notice. Unlike Food Republic's perfect pancakes, which you can make with butter, eggs, and milk, Cracker Barrel's mix requires only water to make batches from eight to 35 pancakes.

A question posed to a Cracker Barrel employee confirmed that, just as the box instructs, the chain uses margarine rather than butter to grease the griddle before ladling on the pancake batter. Reviews compliment the outcome following the directions, but one needn't feel so restricted. Among the ways a home chef gives to upgrade boxed pancake mix, you can replace the water with sparkling water or buttermilk to either aerate the batter or thicken it up. What's more, just like you can add chocolate, fruit, or nuts into or atop your pancakes to mix up the flavor, you can also substitute the water with other liquids like beer or cider.