Culinary traditions in Middle Earth

[Nogrod]

Thanks to HerenIstarion, I got a grip of gastronomic threads that have been pursued at BD. Unfortunately, from my point of view, only the first one (in 2002), even took up some ideas of sharing recipies’. And none of the threads shared a discussion of what could be the culinary traditions of the Middle Earth.

So I think, there would be a place for this kind of thread also, and again.

Could we have a discussion, concerning the various culinary traditions of the Middle Earth, and maybe share some ideas of the recipies’? I myself have invented / gathered some 50+ recipies’ for my own “Middle Earth Cookbook” (to be just privatively “published” to my daughters' as they run away to live on their own), with some introductions. I would be quite ready to “share and enjoy” (remember D. Adams?) them, to give and to gain from ideas’ we’ll share, for the common good. Maybe we could really publish something, as a “BD Cookbook” one day?

As an introduction, I would like to make the following generalizations.

It’s easy to pinpoint two areas’ of gastronomic culture in the Middle Earth.

Firstly the Hobbitton & the Breeland are easily seen as a kind of British Isles, Northern France, Benelux, Northern Germany & Scandinavia -stuff. This is something that Tolkien himself makes quite clear.

Secondly, it would be easy to assume Minas Tirith (& Osgiliath etc.) to have some kind of Mediterranean cuisine, including North African tradition. And if we think of the fourth age, surely at least Minas Tirith has become a place hip enough to breed some cross-kitchen?

But the rest is more challenging.

The beornings’ would have their vegan palate with a northern twist?

How about the “Lake people”, from Esgaroth, or from near the Lone Mountain? The cuisine of eastern Europe (Russia, Poland, Czech republic, Hungary)?

And how about the rohirrim? They sure rode down from the north – and would therefore share some basic traditions with the northern people, but perhaps their new surroundings & involvements, would have made the tradition a new one? Nothing we have in this actual world of ours, an assemblage of northern & southern (European) cuisine?

Pelargir? Maybe Caribbean flavours would come from here (the title “The Pirates’ of the Caribbean” really has roots up to 17th. Century). Nice way of threading popular ideas and Tolkien together?

How about southern Gondor (Dol Amroth etc.)? As odd as it sounds, I would suggest, it would be the place of Indian flavours, or a blend of India & Africa, as we have at the kichen of eastern Africa. This just because there is no other natural place for Indian cuisine, and I just couldn’t live without it.

Then there would be the recipies’ of the Haradrim, that would come from sub-Saharan Africa.

The easterlings’ could easily be seen as far-eastern people (Indonesia, Philippines’, China, Japan etc.), but I’m not sure, whether this interpretation is any good at all. F.ex. their kitchen relies heavily on seafood, but where, in the Middle Earth could they live by the sea? The lake Rhûn might be the closest substitute? Here we see Tolkien making a borderline. Where do easterling have their abodes’ in the first place?

But. Comments? Ideas?

I truly acknowledge, that these basic ideas have been the most common and unreflective, empowering the stereotypes we deem to have in general. But that’s also the other side of the coin: by sticking to the “generalities”, one can make himself understood... and with the case of food, get some real experiences of real life luxury!

I’ll put forwards some of my recipies’ in a couple of days’ of time. I’ll start from the “obvious” ones’ (I’ve even dared to construct the “Herbs and stewed Rabbit” –recipe, as Sam would have done it at the Shire) . The way I have been generating these recipies’, have been both to think of the world of Tolkien, and to make good food with reachable ingredients. I have not cared to shy with borrowing classics’, but I have tried also to just make what comes to my mind...

I surely would welcome your thoughts and recipies’! But perhaps not those which begin with phrases like “First you should take two Balrogs”...

So what do you think about these general culinary outlines’, I’ve tried to open? I would be happy to hear some criticism. Not to talk of seeing some general ideas about the culinary traditions’ in Middle Earth.

[Nogrod]

This first is an easy one. One that is overtly deemed junk-food. But after all, eating good sausages' and taters' isn't bad at all, especially, if you serve them with lots of fresh sallad!

Sausages and potatoes from the Bree-land

You will waste your time in trying to find a more “Bree-like” bar-food than this one. The Breelanders are famous sausage-makers and their repertoire includes several kinds of sausages – each one more delicious than the others. In order to catch the original flavour, you should use a couple of different sausages: the better the sausages, the better the portions’. Don’t use sausages where the ingredients-table lists water and flour as the first components! Otherwise the choice of sausages is relative to your taste: you can use chorizo, bratwurst, salami, lamb-sausage, or any local fleshy sausage you come up with. This is a dish where the ingredients really count.

- 2-3 small potatoes / person
- Enough sausages (100-200g. / person), at least two different sorts, cut into bite-sized pieces
- The juice of ½ a lemon (for two or three persons’, with more people and ingredients’, the amount of the lemon-juice should be increased)
- 1 small onion / person (if you are making the dish for several people, you can change every other onion for a red onion or a couple of shallots), cut into rings
- Thyme & oregano, preferably fresh, but dried will do
- Salt and pepper
- Butter & Olive oil
- Tomatosauce (see recipe below)
- French mustard (Dijon or other similar kind of strong, not sweet mustard)

1. Wash the potatoes carefully – do not peel them, if they are not having a dragon-like skin over them! Chop them into boats (1/4 or 1/8 part, depending the size of the taters’). Put the taters’ into a ovenproof pan, and season them with plenty of salt and pepper, thyme, oregano, lemon-juice and olive oil. Stir well, and put them into the oven, pre-heated to 200C (400F).

2. Soften the onion-rings in a casserole, with a light heat (with some butter and olive-oil). Sauteé them, do not brown! Some ten minutes'. Set the onions aside.

3. Heat up the pan. Add oil if needed (propably not). Fry the sausages, in batches, if needs to be.

4. Take the potatoes out of the oven (if the wedges' are small, 20-30 minutes' of overall cooking-time will suffice, if they are larger, you should count some extra time with them). Stir well. Add the onions above the potatoes, then the sausages over the onions'. From the onions and sausages above, will come nice amounts of grease that will juice the potatoes and make them more delicious.

5. Let the portion cook in the oven for 5-10 minutes more– don’t let the sausages burn (put a folio above the set if they are in danger of burning).

6. Serve with tomatosauce (recipe below), good mustard, and strong ale (Bock for example). You could almost think of sitting at the table at the Prancing Pony!

Breeish’ tomato-sauce:

Take one can of tomato-pureé (about 1-2 tablespoons’), pour over some 1 tbs. of olive oil. Add some freshly ground salt, black pepper, thyme, ground coriander, ground cloves and ground ginger (+ ground jeera & some chilli, optional). Stir well, and let stand. This should be done first!

[Nogrod]

This one continues the quite heavy standards of a northern Middle Earth kitchen. I’ll promise to bring forth some lighter recipies in near future. Just made this today, and got an inspiration to share it.
Indeed this one is a kind of a variation from the famous “Kiev chicken”, and the slavic mentality is followed in the side dishes, f.ex. the usage of canned peas, gherkins & smetana (russian sour-cream, quite near creme fraiche). But as the Kiev chicken is pretty hard to make – it requires handcraft skills – this one is relatively easy, even though there is quite a lot of work in it. But that should be fun, even to a beginner (getting everything ready at the same time will require some thinking). Making it twosome is even more fun. The recipe uses dried herbs, but fresh ones are alway preferable, just remember to cut them well and use a little more of them.

Erebor chicken

This recipe comes from Esgaroth. The name of the dish doesn’t in the first instance point to the lonely mountain as such, as it contains a pun of sorts. The famous herb “dragon” is the pivotal point here, for it is used in almost everything that is served with this dish. This is a typical winter-food, using preserved ingredients and having relatively nice amounts of butter & cream in it. And in part just because of the latter, it tastes wonderful.

For the “salad”:
- gherkins (salt preserved cucumbers, particulary russian thing: if you can get the original ones, the better) and canned peas (salt preserved too, but more common than the cucumbers around the world), 1/3 gherkins vs. 2/3 peas. The exact amount should be decided by the number of eaters.
(- radish, as much or little less than gherkin, optional)
- smetana (or any thick sour-cream)
- ground white pepper
- dragon, marjoram, parsley

Side dishes:
- 1-2 potatoes / person
- ½-1 carrots / person
- salt & pepper
- dragon, parsley
- smetana

- 1 medium yellow onion / person
- salt & currypowder

The chicken:
- 2 small breasts of chicken / person
- butter
- salt & pepper
- dragon, parsley
(- fresh rosemary, optional)
- flour & breadcrumbs
- ground paprika
- 1 egg (for 2-3 portions, more as needed)
- about ½ ltr. / 2 cups of oil, for deep-frying

1. About an hour earlier, pound the chicken breasts in between a folio, baking paper or whatever you can find (use a meatpounder, a bottom of a bottle, a casserole, or anything). Just try to make them as thin as you can without breaking them (the most important thing being: Don’t break them!). Fit them as pairs, two against one another. Then season every two of them from the “inside” = rub herbs into one side of every breast, then add seasoning, to the same side, then put thin wedges of butter over one half of each pair. Place the non-butter breast over the other, so that all the seasoning & herbs & butter is left inside this “cake”, outsides being clean. Take cocktailsticks, toothsticks etc. and secure them against each other. Just as starting a needlework and leaving the needles in (some 4-5 sticks / portion should do).

2. Take some flour and pour it to a plate to form a “cover” over the plate. Turn the tied-together chicken breasts over in the flour, a couple of times. Set the chicken aside to dry for a second. Meanwhile dust extra flour off the plate and replace with breadcrumbs, season with pepper and paprika, stir. Break one egg (or more, if needed) and whisk it in another plate. Turn the chickens in the beaten egg first, then carefully roll them in the breadcrumbs, so that they are totally covered. Cover and refrigirate for an hour.

3. After about an hour, begin making the salad. Cut the gherkins in small bits and combine with the peas in a bowl. Let rest a minute or two. If there is a lot of liquid in the bowl after that, discard of it. Pour in about 1 tablespoon of smetana / person over the peas & gherkins and stir. Season and stir again. Put a folio or something over the bowl and put into the fridge.

4. Put enough water to boil for the potatoe-carrot mash. Wash and peel the potatoes and carrots. Cut the carrots in very small bits and add to the water immediately (they need more cooking time than the taters). Season with dragon & parsley, salt & pepper. At this stage, bring the deep-frying oil to heat up in a separate pan. Also turn the oven on, 150C (300F). Then cut the taters a bit rougher. Add the taters after the carrots have boiled a couple of minutes. (If you are having a big dinner party, the boiling of the water might take a while: in that occasion, put the taters into a bowl and cover them with cold water; that way they will stay fresh before cooking).

5. When the oil is hot enough (try with a piece of white bread, it should turn nicely brown in a minute), put the chicken portions in to the oil, 1 or 2 at a time (depending on the size of the vessel: do not “overcrowd” the thing, for the oil will cool down and the frying won’t be good). Boil for several minutes, about 3-5. Watch them carefully not to brown them too much, they should be mild yellow-brown in colour.

6. While the chicken are frying, peal the onions, and cut them into rings. When the chicken have a nice colour, take them from the oil and rest them over a householdpaper or something (to suck the extra oil). Meanwhile pour the onionrings into the oil. Put the chicken in an ovenproof vessel and into the oven. They should be ready in 5-10 minutes. (While chicken should not be eaten raw, an overcooked chicken is dry and tasteless – so be careful with the timing, and check)

7. As the taters are beginning to feel soft, pour out the water – and according to your hurry, cover and let rest, or mash immediately. You should have an eye for the onions too, and stir them time time, and be careful not to burn them. But in any order. Mash the potatoes (do not use a machine, for it will produce “clinical” results: better to have something to bite in a mash). Add smetana and taste fot the seasoning. Pick the onions with a slotted spoon and put them over a paper or towel. Season the onionrings with salt and currypowder.

8. After all is done – and hope someone else has laid the table ready, you should go on serving. The “salad” should be served from its own bowl. You may pour the onionrings over the mashed potatoes/carrots or serve them separately. And last but not least, the chicken portions should be served, straight from the oven, to each plate.

9. Even though north seems to be the ale-country with Tolkien also (and the russian origins of this meal would underline it), feel free to have some cold, dry white wine or fresh ice-cold water with this one.

[Nogrod]

This thread seems to be gaining in sightings, but not in comments or other suggestions. Well. I'll nevertheless push on, and try to translate recipies as the time allows. Let's see how it turns out. But any help, comment, criticism etc. would be of help. And welcome anyway.

Not to mention the discussion of the prinicples...

[eowyntje]

Might I say I love this topic and can't wait to read more of your recipes. I've never really tried to make any middle earth recipes but after reading this topic I can't wait to make some. If I come up with something good I will post it.
There is one recipe I am really interested in. I know its a cliché, but I would really like to find a recipe for good lembas. Any suggestions?

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by eowyntje

There is one recipe I am really interested in. I know its a cliché, but I would really like to find a recipe for good lembas. Any suggestions?

I think there's not enough information on what it should taste like so people end up with doing waffles and calling them lembas...