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Author Topic: Dwarven cuisine  (Read 4495 times)

Aslandus

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Dwarven cuisine
« on: August 30, 2014, 01:37:33 pm »

Does anyone else look at the prepared foods and try to imagine what kind of food it actually is? The dwarves seem content to call everything roasts, biscuits, or stews, but it doesn't seem adequate in every case...

for example, I see a roast made of flour, flour, flour and sugar and assume it's a pastry, perhaps a large bready cake with some icing on top, or mussel, shad, cheese, and strawberry would probably be a shad stuffed with mussels and strawberries with cheese on top

Any interesting things you've found your dwarves cooking?

Art

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Re: Dwarven cuisine
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2014, 01:50:49 pm »

I totally try to imagine what it looks like too.

Plump helmet biscuits sound like a fun, if simple, fantasy meal.
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SixOfSpades

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Re: Dwarven cuisine
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2014, 05:46:41 pm »

I just found out that the majority of my "Plant" stocks was hide root & blade weed (both inedible), and the majority of my "Other" foodstuff stocks was tallow (edible, but turned off because yuck). So, lately my dwarves have been cooking an awful lot of 100% tallow roasts.

Farming will resume next year.
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Dunamisdeos

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Re: Dwarven cuisine
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2014, 05:53:10 pm »

I do this all the time!

I think a Flour stew would be some sort of thick chowder with bread.
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than402

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Re: Dwarven cuisine
« Reply #4 on: August 30, 2014, 06:07:49 pm »

i find it rather easy to imagine how a stew made of plump helmet,dwarven ale and pig tail seeds would look like.i imagine beer biscuits as using something simple and stable as a main ingredient regardless of whether the description mentions it,and simply being cooked with beer for flavour.when i see a roast made out of cat tallow,gray langure eyes,dwarven sugar and pig milk,however...yuck
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Agent_Irons

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Re: Dwarven cuisine
« Reply #5 on: August 30, 2014, 06:09:00 pm »

Sauteed eyes in a sweet cream sauce! Delicious.
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Dunamisdeos

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Re: Dwarven cuisine
« Reply #6 on: August 30, 2014, 06:50:43 pm »

i find it rather easy to imagine how a stew made of plump helmet,dwarven ale and pig tail seeds would look like.i imagine beer biscuits as using something simple and stable as a main ingredient regardless of whether the description mentions it,and simply being cooked with beer for flavour.when i see a roast made out of cat tallow,gray langure eyes,dwarven sugar and pig milk,however...yuck

That is a cake. Instead of butter, we have tallow. Sugar and milk equals pastries. I don't know who the hell eats eyes, but hey. Spell Happy birthday with them.
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wierd

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Re: Dwarven cuisine
« Reply #7 on: August 30, 2014, 07:07:14 pm »

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)

For the most part, dwarven cuisine is not something I would care to imagine--- In fact, so much so that I have seriously contemplated a cooking mod for the kitchen workshop.

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than402

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Re: Dwarven cuisine
« Reply #8 on: August 31, 2014, 05:57:25 am »


That is a cake. Instead of butter, we have tallow. Sugar and milk equals pastries. I don't know who the hell eats eyes, but hey. Spell Happy birthday with them.

and after reading that and constructing the mental image,i don't think i will ever eat cake again  :)

a lot of people eat eyes.fish eyes are considered a delicacy in some places(especially if the fish is big enough),and animal heads are used for soup.not too long ago,meat was quite expensive,so when an animal was slaughtered they didn't let even one part go to waste.


For the most part, dwarven cuisine is not something I would care to imagine--- In fact, so much so that I have seriously contemplated a cooking mod for the kitchen workshop.


that would be very interesting.especially if you found a way to put quality levels in boozes and generally make better quality drinks
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Aslandus

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Re: Dwarven cuisine
« Reply #9 on: August 31, 2014, 09:22:23 am »

Pastry needs oil. It is not optional. The thicker, heavier, and creamier the lipid, the better.
My knowledge of all things pastry is a little low, so I'll defer to your judgement on that, but I stand by my statement about 3 flour + 1 sugar making essentially a big loaf of bread with sugary glaze on top


For the most part, dwarven cuisine is not something I would care to imagine--- In fact, so much so that I have seriously contemplated a cooking mod for the kitchen workshop.


that would be very interesting.especially if you found a way to put quality levels in boozes and generally make better quality drinks
I imagine drink quality would be about brewing time (longer time = higher quality) and skill (for factors like not dropping dirt into the drink you're brewing), so I imagine it would come to a tradeoff:

Do you make more drinks with your expert brewers that make the fortress happy and sell for more dorfbucks, or many drinks to make sure you have enough so your dwarves don't have to drink water...

Quartz_Mace

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Re: Dwarven cuisine
« Reply #10 on: August 31, 2014, 09:52:31 am »

My Dwarves mostly just eat turkey eggs and whatever meat or fish we can trade for. All plants get brewed into alcohol, which is imperative because there is no fresh water on the surface. So, I imagine their having scrambled eggs and wine for breakfast, poached eggs and some fruity drink(we live in a forest for lunch, and wine and a nice roast for dinner. I'd assume these would look pretty good because Dwarves appear to have perfected food storage and preservation, making me assume their worth preservation.
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Mokkun

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Re: Dwarven cuisine
« Reply #11 on: August 31, 2014, 10:35:01 am »

a lot of people eat eyes.fish eyes are considered a delicacy in some places(especially if the fish is big enough),and animal heads are used for soup.not too long ago,meat was quite expensive,so when an animal was slaughtered they didn't let even one part go to waste.


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

and ontopick
I do seem to get stuff like minced hen egg, minced duck egg minced dwarven beer and minced turkey hen egg. that sounds interesting.. and something that might be haggis or shepards pie, Forgotten beast brain roast, minced prepared dingo lung, minced sheep heart, minced cave crocodile lung and minced prepared forgotten beast brain.
and tons of other strange made stuff..
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Baffler

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Re: Dwarven cuisine
« Reply #12 on: August 31, 2014, 10:43:15 am »

I try hard to get dwarves eating mostly prepared meals, sometimes to distraction when I try to get the cooks to mix ingredients in specific ways. In my current fort flour, eggs, fish, and imported garden vegetables and fruits are what is mostly used in cooking. It doesn't take much imagination to figure what a biscuit made with rye flour and rye flour would look like, or rye flour and eggplant, or whatever.

The stews and roasts are more interesting. I've made myself hungry more than once (as I have writing this post) imagining what a rye flour (I figure they'd be dumplings,) shad, and potato stew would taste like; or roasted roach (fish) with strawberries and a poached egg on the side, with a garnish of finely cut amaranth leaves or cooked in rum to taste.
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Broseph Stalin

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Re: Dwarven cuisine
« Reply #13 on: August 31, 2014, 11:05:04 am »

i find it rather easy to imagine how a stew made of plump helmet,dwarven ale and pig tail seeds would look like.i imagine beer biscuits as using something simple and stable as a main ingredient regardless of whether the description mentions it,and simply being cooked with beer for flavour.when i see a roast made out of cat tallow,gray langure eyes,dwarven sugar and pig milk,however...yuck
Some kind of bastard cheese cake made of fat milk and sugar and topped with monkey eyes.

wierd

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Re: Dwarven cuisine
« Reply #14 on: August 31, 2014, 11:32:17 am »

As interesting as the "grab it and throw it in a pot" method is, (considering what comes out)-- it still doesnt hold a candle to my own imaginings of what those dwarves could be making with these new ingredients.

There is now enough raw culinary material to make truly gourmet food products. Seriously.

Try this on for size:

Stuffed eggplant, (with cheese-stuffed mushrooms, diced ham and barley) braised in red wine sauce on rice pilaf; with a vinaigrette side salad of crumbled feta-like cheese, red and green spinach leaves, slivered cabbage, crumbled boiled egg, shaved carrot and iceberg lettuce; next to a hearty chicken and vegetable soup made with diced chicken, carrots, onion, celery and potatoes; followed up with a scrumptious mixed berry (Blackberry, Raspberry, Blueberry) tart (Made with wheat flour, dwarven sugar, and cow tallow, along with said berries).

Aside from missing an obvious meat entrée, that's a 4 course meal, and with ingredients now found in-game. (well, vinegar isnt in yet, but that's an easy fix.)

It wouldnt be that hard to implement more sensible meal preparation. Since we are preparing meals, break it down into entrées, then assemble those entrées into meals.


Mostly, I look at the ingredients that dwarves have access to now, and see this huge canvas of culinary potential, and am disappointed that it isnt being painted. :(
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