A savory, shelf-stable, particulate, meltable, food-grade plasticized composition is disclosed, having a water activity A.sub.w of 0.70 or below. The composition is an oil-in-water emulsion of: a protein that forms a thermally reversible meltable gel, plasticizer components to solubilize the protein, comprising a polyol plasticizer and a non-polyol plasticizer, a level of an edible oil component sufficient to provide proper texture, mouthfeel, and melt characteristics to the plasticized composition, and a savory flavoring component, and typically comprises 10 30 wt-% protein, 15 50 wt-% plasticizer component, including, based upon the total weight of the composition, 10 40 wt-% polyol plasticizer and 3 15 wt-% non-polyol plasticizer, 10 40 wt-% oil component, 5 25 wt-% moisture, and 10 40 wt-% flavor characterizing component.