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[Tacomagic]

I hope we all remember the Syrup Roast.  The one made from minced Syrup.

[TheHossofMoss]

Dwarven Sugar Biscuits FTW!

I just imagine those as sugar cookies.

[wierd]

Not hard to imagine at all.

Sounds a lot like peanut brittle, without the peanuts.

Could also have a consistency similar to say, fondant, however.

Means of preparation is very important. It is literally the difference between puff pastry, and something that is inedibly hard.

[than402]

you mean like this dish? http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smalahove
And no, I have not tried it..

yes,that is exactly the thing i had in mind when i wrote that.i have tried a very similar dish in Megara.i was with a friend and we were returning from our vacations,when we felt hungry,so we stopped to eat.the thing is,there was only one tavern in the town that we knew of,and it was kind of early so they hadn't prepared much.only chicken,and...roasted lamb head!out of curiosity,we ordered both the chicken and the head...

it was better than it sounds,actually.the brain was particularly nice...

there was also a family of tourists nearby.the look on their faces as they watched us ate the head was priceless:a mix of disgust,fascination,and plain"wow,these assholes are eating this thing for real?"

and wait,it gets worse.much worse.

http://www.okinawahostels.com/files/u2/fish-eyes-heiwadori-market-naha.jpg

is there a way to make a roast only out of drinks,or is the game sane in that department?how do you guys think it would look like?

[Miuramir]

.... Since we are preparing meals, break it down into entrées, then assemble those entrées into meals. ...

I'd like to point out that the vast majority of "medieval-ish" societies don't feature meat as a default component.  Usually, the core of a diet is a starch... bread-like products (loaves, biscuits, hoe cakes, pastry cases, etc.) from a grain (wheat, rye, oat, etc.), potato, corn (maize), rice, manioc, legumes, pulses, squashes, and so on.  The better-quality ones of these also have significant other dietary contribution, including protein.  For peoples that need more energy (active workers, warriors, cold-climate dwellers, etc.), you'll see more supplementation with fats and alcohols to provide higher energy density.  Meats are typically a comparatively small part of overall diet; they may be culturally significant as luxury or ceremonial foods, or sparingly used as an accent. 

Cultures in cold climates will typically have a lot more meats and alcohols; cultures in hot climates will typically have a lot more fruits.  But I'd say that you've got things backward from a historical perspective (and much of the world even today): what you label as "filler" is actually the core of the meal, around which everything else is ultimately organized. 

I've got some more thoughts forming on fundamentally fungal-based cuisines; we've got far fewer historical examples to draw on, but I'd guess at a start that the plump helmet fills in a role that's vaguely analogous to squash: partway between vegetable and core starch. 

[Baffler]

Plump helmets are the only "dwarven" crop that can be eaten raw, and I would guess that they are the most widely produced and therefore the most widely consumed. On the other hand, there are three other more specialized underground crops that Dwarves eat in some form. Cave wheat is milled into flour, sweet pods into sugar or syrup, and quarry bushes are grown for their leaves and to press rock nuts, either into a paste or for oil. There are also a few other uniquely Dwarven foodstuffs, like Dwarven cheese. I don't think I've ever actually seen a purring maggot though, so I'm inclined to view this as a delicacy.

[wierd]

.... Since we are preparing meals, break it down into entrées, then assemble those entrées into meals. ...

I'd like to point out that the vast majority of "medieval-ish" societies don't feature meat as a default component.  Usually, the core of a diet is a starch... bread-like products (loaves, biscuits, hoe cakes, pastry cases, etc.) from a grain (wheat, rye, oat, etc.), potato, corn (maize), rice, manioc, legumes, pulses, squashes, and so on.  The better-quality ones of these also have significant other dietary contribution, including protein.  For peoples that need more energy (active workers, warriors, cold-climate dwellers, etc.), you'll see more supplementation with fats and alcohols to provide higher energy density.  Meats are typically a comparatively small part of overall diet; they may be culturally significant as luxury or ceremonial foods, or sparingly used as an accent. 

Cultures in cold climates will typically have a lot more meats and alcohols; cultures in hot climates will typically have a lot more fruits.  But I'd say that you've got things backward from a historical perspective (and much of the world even today): what you label as "filler" is actually the core of the meal, around which everything else is ultimately organized. 

I've got some more thoughts forming on fundamentally fungal-based cuisines; we've got far fewer historical examples to draw on, but I'd guess at a start that the plump helmet fills in a role that's vaguely analogous to squash: partway between vegetable and core starch.

This is true, but from that perspective, the major food item is "pottage".  Pottage is basically anything that is cooked in a pot all day, and usually consisted of boiled grains and vegetables.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottage

That would basically be a simple vegetable entree.

[Aslandus]

you mean like this dish? http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smalahove
And no, I have not tried it..

yes,that is exactly the thing i had in mind when i wrote that.i have tried a very similar dish in Megara.i was with a friend and we were returning from our vacations,when we felt hungry,so we stopped to eat.the thing is,there was only one tavern in the town that we knew of,and it was kind of early so they hadn't prepared much.only chicken,and...roasted lamb head!out of curiosity,we ordered both the chicken and the head...

it was better than it sounds,actually.the brain was particularly nice...

there was also a family of tourists nearby.the look on their faces as they watched us ate the head was priceless:a mix of disgust,fascination,and plain"wow,these assholes are eating this thing for real?"

and wait,it gets worse.much worse.

http://www.okinawahostels.com/files/u2/fish-eyes-heiwadori-market-naha.jpg

is there a way to make a roast only out of drinks,or is the game sane in that department?how do you guys think it would look like?

You need a solid base food in-game to cook something, you can't just turn syrup and beer into candy unfortunately. If you could though, it would probably end up as a pretty musky tasting soup...

Plump helmets are the only "dwarven" crop that can be eaten raw, and I would guess that they are the most widely produced and therefore the most widely consumed. On the other hand, there are three other more specialized underground crops that Dwarves eat in some form. Cave wheat is milled into flour, sweet pods into sugar or syrup, and quarry bushes are grown for their leaves and to press rock nuts, either into a paste or for oil. There are also a few other uniquely Dwarven foodstuffs, like Dwarven cheese. I don't think I've ever actually seen a purring maggot though, so I'm inclined to view this as a delicacy.

So plump helmets are like cave apples, you could theoretically make them to only thing your fortress grows/eats/brews, but it won't be very efficient use of space or resources when the other crops offer more output and diversity with slightly more work

[Aristion]

I know it is from MWDF but stomach pancakes anyone?

[Saiko Kila]

Pastry needs oil. It is not optional. The thicker, heavier, and creamier the lipid, the better.

This is because it is the oil that allows the pastry to form layers, and the layers are what make if flaky and crisp. Traditionally, the best oils to use were hard white lard, white tallow, and cold butter.

You can also use vegetable oils if you chill then whip the bejeebus out of them, but that requires litterally freezing temperatures. (Like, in the deep freeze. It also requires you to either work VERY fast, or to have to keep returning the unfinished pastry to the freezer; if you take too long working the dough, it wont come out right though. That's why you should probably use that saturated, hard fat-- white lard, hard tallow, or chilled butter instead. Just throwing this little aside in for those vegans that want pastry without the animal products)

I don't know what definition of pastry is used here, because not all what I understand as pastry is flaky and crisp, but you can use vegetable oil for every dough I know. Even puff pastry can be made without butter, the original version from ancient Greece was made with olive oil. You need some chilling for it to work better, but standard fridge temperatures (well above freezing) are enough. Since the standard underground temperature in DF is basically the same as standard temperature in fridges (middle or upper), that shouldn't be a problem.

[wierd]

choux pastry (puff pastry) is different from traditional pastry;

It has to be mixed a special way, but gets piped out then baked. It would be the most amenable to unsaturated veggie oils.
Most other pastry has to be rolled out and folded repeatedly. This makes things like danish pastry, baklava pastry, and pals.
There's also piecrust dough, which is a kind of pastry. This can easily be made with chilled veggie oil but the end product is inferior to those made with lard, tallow, or crisco shortening.
Then there is stuff like tortes and quiche-- Those are made from shortbread pastry dough.

The one thing they all have in common though is oil or fat of some kind. Again, it is NOT optional. The oil is necessary for it to be pastry, and not hard tack.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastry

Note the chemistry section; Hard, stiff oils work better than liquid ones. (This is why freezing the oil to make it "goopy" can alleviate this, and produce a superior pastry with normally liquid oil, but again, requires one to work quickly.) This is one of the reasons why hydrogenated oils (Transfat and pals) are routinely used in making snack cakes and other processed food items; it's cheap, it's effective, and it wont anger vegans. (just health nuts and the american heart association.) The hydrogenation process turns runny vegetable oils into stiff, hard oils (that you cant digest, and which will clog up your arteries.)

There are some natural vegetable oils that would be suitable for making pastry without having to be chilled/frozen, but they often have strong flavors of their own: Cacao butter, coconut oil, palm kernel oil, and pals. They are also, ALL OF THEM, very bad for you since they are loaded with saturated fat (which is also why they are thick and heavy/creamy lipids.)

Palm kernel oil is the cheapest of the three, and has the least offensive flavor. Cacao butter could be useful for some specialty pastries however, where the flavor of the oil would be of beneficial character (say, in pie crust for a chocolate creme pie); but would not be advisable for general pastry use. Similar with coconut oil.

*loves cooking. always has. Deserts especially.

Chilling the dough has more to do with supressing/retarding gluten strand formation (when used with runnier lipids) than it does with improving the working qualities of the lipid. Freezing the oil in the freezer will turn it into a "snot like" consistency, which can be used in conjunction with chilled flour and icewater/chilled milk to make a decent pastry; better than simply chilled dough alone can produce.

[Agent_Irons]

I think my favorite thing about dwarf fortress is the forums, and my favorite thing about the forums is that you periodically get people who show up and just are like 'AH YES THIS, I KNOW ALL ABOUT THIS' and for every person it's a different thing. Historically accurate metalworking. Pastry. Fungus-based diets. Attack tokens. Dinosaurs. Some are more applicable to dwarf fortress than others, but everyone has one, and we're all here.

(wierd, you kept saying 'and pals' and for some reason every single time I read it as something from the previous category that was foreign but literally named 'pals'. "Huh, what a strange foreign dessert, this 'pals'. I wonder if it's greek." "Why haven't I heard of pals oil before? It sounds delicious" It was only in writing this post musing on your strange passion for pastry that I figured it out. )

[gunpowdertea]

.. and then we all have quite different definitions of what we would call "pastry". I was under the impression that everything baked, cake or biscuit like could qualify (and then there are people that call a main dish Entrée, which is French for starter and Scampi is a sauce, which is Italian for a crustacean, and...)

But this has made me hungry! I'd like to do some decent cooking tonight, but I have to bake bread... I guess I should head home soon.

[Dunamisdeos]

Historically accurate metalworking. Pastry. Fungus-based diets. Attack tokens. Dinosaurs.

This. Is. DWARF FORTRESS!!

Anyway, I imagine the ones made from nothing but tallow to be doughnuts, krispy kream style.