Henneth Annûn Story Archive

I am trying to compose a meal for one of my stories set in Gondor. Suddenly I ran into the problem of what kind of food Gondorians would eat.

I checked the possible general ingredients and that list is quite satisfactory. But then there is the problem of spices, influences on the traditional cooking from other cultures and the food culture in general. I am hopeless there

Any ideas?

 

I have a friend who is a chef and also a Tolkein fan. I asked her what they would eat in Gondor. Here's her reply:

I could expand on these, but here's a "taste" of the cuisines as I see them:


Gondor:

lemon and rice soup
small tender cake-like bread rolls (for the Steward's table) or whole-grain hand-rolls, served with fruit preserves
salty cheese preserved in brine
cured olives
salad of very thinly sliced cucumbers, salted, rinsed, drained, and mixed with vinegar and seasonings
eggplants and zucchinis, stuffed with minced meat and vegetables in sauce
terrine of rabbit
roast plump hens, stuffed with saffron rice and dried fruit
steamed baby pattypan squash in beurre noisette (all the squashes grow on trellises on sunny terraces)
delicate many-leaved pastry wrapping a cheese, scrambled egg, and vegetable filling - crust ornately decorated
apricots, figs, & cherries poached in sweet white wine and rosewater, spiced with Southron spices

Maurita

Hope this helps! I'm hungry now.

Gwynnyd

 

I had a similar problem a few weeks ago. My attempt at a Gondorian meal appears in Which We are I based it largely on the only reported Gondorian meal that I know of - the one Frodo and Sam share with Faramir in HA, and partly on my beliefs about how Tolkien saw the world. I wanted it to seem different enough to be M-e-ey without either appearing modern or going for true medieval. I borrowed a little, as I often do, from Little House on the Prairie. ;-)

Avon

 

Thank you Avon and Gwynnyd! I cannot even begin to tell you how helpful this is for my fic. Thanks so much

Maka

 

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