Culinary traditions in Middle Earth

[eowyntje]

I am still searching for any food hobbits ate

So far in the 'lotr' I've found records of hobbits eating: patatoes, rabbits, herbs, mushrooms, carrots, cabigages, bread, corn, appels, honey, wine, beer, and pipeweed.

And in 'the Hobbit' I found: tea, cake, gingerbread, coffee, port, buter, applepie, raspberryjam, cheese, lettuce, pork, eggs, chicken, tomatoes.

I have of course not found out all that is said about the eating-behaviour of hobbits jet, but it seems quite clear that hobbits must have had an extensive trade-network to get all these things, as there is no climate in which they can all be produced.
Also, I think the mentioning of cheese in 'the hobbit' makes clear that hobbits had acces to milk and beef. (wether they ate it is another thing)

[Nogrod]

Originally Posted by eowyntje

Also, I think the mentioning of cheese in 'the hobbit' makes clear that hobbits had acces to milk and beef. (wether they ate it is another thing)

This same thing has come across in a couple of mails, and seems to call for attention. It is not, that only cows produce milk. It is a common characteristics of mammals in general. Quite a many of those are being used by humans in the real world - so why not by hobbits in the Middle Earth? Propably the most famous cheeses in the world are made from something other than cow's milk, f.ex. goat's or sheep's milk!

Otherwise, thank's to Eowyntje's toil and labour. These lists are a great help!

[eowyntje]

Good point, I totally forgot about that. I'll take it in consideration when I look for things hobbits might eat.

[Thinlómien]

Dwarves could keep chicken in cages. They could hunt small mammals and mountain deers and gazelles, since they can use bows. (I'm referring to The Hobbit and Mirkwood, where Thorin shots the deer.) Why would they bother learning so much archery if they preferred hand-to-hand combat in war, if not hunt? (I actually began to fancy my theory of hunting dwarves. Any opinions?)

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by eowyntje

I am still searching for any food hobbits ate

So far in the 'lotr' I've found records of hobbits eating: patatoes, rabbits, herbs, mushrooms, carrots, cabigages, bread, corn, appels, honey, wine, beer, and pipeweed.

And in 'the Hobbit' I found: tea, cake, gingerbread, coffee, port, buter, applepie, raspberryjam, cheese, lettuce, pork, eggs, chicken, tomatoes.

I have of course not found out all that is said about the eating-behaviour of hobbits jet, but it seems quite clear that hobbits must have had an extensive trade-network to get all these things, as there is no climate in which they can all be produced.
Also, I think the mentioning of cheese in 'the hobbit' makes clear that hobbits had acces to milk and beef. (wether they ate it is another thing)

All of those things would be able to be produced in the English climate, apart from pipeweed which I would certainly be growing outdoors if I could! Though it may be possible to grow it indoors under UV lights? Not that I shall try that as the police helicopter with its thermal imaging cam might think I am growing something else! I couldn't imagine Tolkien, a committed smoker, leaving out the joys of tobacco for his Hobbits.

Coffee might have been chicory coffee, which was extremely common here until recently; I believe coffee can also be made from acorns and hazelnuts? I have colleagues who grow tomatoes on their windowsills at work, and my father once grew some in his porch; and grapes do grow outdoors in the warmer parts of England.

I think Tolkien noticed that tobacco, potatoes and tomatoes were an 'anachronism' but he happily left them in.

Meat would not necessarily have been so hard to come by if we are going to equate The Shire with late Victorian/Edwardian England. But people would have eaten many more cuts of meat than we would find palatable today - things like brawn (brains), offal, tongue, trotters, oxtail, black pudding (mmmm.....), tripe etc. As my grandfather used to say, the only part of a pig you cannot eat is the squeak. Sorry to any veggies out there. In fact, game, beef, pork and mutton/lamb would have been much more common than would chicken; I understand that when my dad was young the only time you got chicken was when one of the hens died, and then you'd have 'old hen pie'. Sometimes they would allow the males to grow a little and eat them too, as there was less need for cockerels, obviously.

Fish would have been a regular meal. Historically, fish ponds were found all over the English countryside as a regular and easy to maintain and catch supply of food. Maybe the rivers in The Shire would also have been teeming with freshwater shrimp and crayfish too.

I like the way the Hobbits are excited to find wild mushrooms growing, as even though mushrooms are easy to cultivate (they could be grown in the darker rooms of smials!) there is nothing like the taste of field mushrooms, and the locations where they can be found are usually a locally guarded secret.

[JennyHallu]

Perhaps the "pipeweed" Tolkien refers to is a plant unique to Middle-Earth, albeit sharing many properties with tobacco.

Also, I am not altogether sure whether tobacco could not be grown in England. I am familiar with the climate in which tobacco is commonly grown here in the United States: areas with fairly temperate climates and warm, but not terribly hot summers. Tobacco is often grown in the Smokey (or Appalachian) mountains, so large snowfalls and/or strong rains (rain tends to get caught on the mountain-slopes) are something the plant is certainly hardy enough to handle.

EDIT: In a fantasy country, can potatoes truly be referred to as an Anachronism? If you define Middle-Earth as only referring to Europe's climate and plant life, you give us Americans, West across the Sea, an awful lot of credit.

Perhaps Tolkien decided that potatoes, in the 450 some odd years since their introduction in Europe, had become such an integral part of the culture and cuisine of the British Isles he could not separate them. Or maybe it didn't occur to him to try. Sometimes I fear we read too much into the tale...As my husband would say, "Sometimes a red car is just a red car," signifying nothing beyond the idea that perhaps Tolkien had a soft spot for fish and chips, or for tobacco.

[eowyntje]

Originally Posted by JennyHallu

Perhaps Tolkien decided that potatoes, in the 450 some odd years since their introduction in Europe, had become such an integral part of the culture and cuisine of the British Isles he could not separate them. Or maybe it didn't occur to him to try. Sometimes I fear we read too much into the tale...As my husband would say, "Sometimes a red car is just a red car," signifying nothing beyond the idea that perhaps Tolkien had a soft spot for fish and chips, or for tobacco.

Good of you to point out that. Maybe we were digging to deep. Tolkien couldn't possibly have thoughts of everything, including the origin of every plant in the Shire. Maybe we should just be happy knowing that wherever patatoes came from, hobbits grew them.

I defenitely think hobbit's ate fish, fish makes sence.
I haven't had any time to do any more research on hobbit eating behaviour, I'll let you know if IU find any mentionings of fish in the books.

[Nogrod]

This recipe calls for strips of bacon as it comes from Hobbitton kitchen but vegetarians may just as well leave them out. Late summer – early fall is the time for mushrooms and the taste of earth!

1 ltr. of chanterells
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
(2 small shallots, finely chopped)
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped (not crushed)
salt and pepper
a bunch of chives, chopped nicely
a pinch of tarragon
1 ltr. milk (you can substitute a part of the milk with cream)
a pinch of nutmeg
100g. processed cheese / cheese spread
4-5 strips of bacon, cut in small pieces
butter

1. Chop the onions and the garlic. Put some butter into the pot with medium heat. Cook the onions & garlic about five minutes until soft but not browned.

2. Meanwhile chop most of the chanterelles to small pieces. Leave a handful of nice and small ones aside whole.

3. Add the cut chanterelles to the onions and braise about ten minutes or until the chanterells are getting soft. Season with salt and pepper. Add chives and tarragon (leave some cut chives to decorate the soup in the end).

4. Meanwhile warm the milk / milk-cream mixture in a separate pan and season it with a pinch of grated nutmeg. Do not let it boil.

5. Add the hot milk / milk-cream mixture to the onions and chanterelles and bring to a gentle boil. Let it simmer for 15-20 minutes carefully seeing the milk doesn’t get burned.

6. Meanwhile cut the bacon-strips in small dices. Heat a pan and fry the bacon. Just before the bacon is getting crisp add the reserved whole chanterelles and reduce the heat so that the chanterells will fry but the bacon will not get charred. Drain the bacon and the whole chanterelles on a paper towel to get rid of the surplus grease.

7. Process the soup in a mixer and then press it through a sieve to another pot – or if you want to make this in an original Hobbit style, just press it through the sieve. Bring the puréed soup back to heat but do not let it boil.

8. Add the processed cheese / cheese spread over a medium heat in small pieces stirring the soup as you add them and let them melt before adding more. When all the cheese has melted in the soup add the fried bacon and the whole chanterelles.

9. Add the last chives on top of the soup and serve immediately with crusted bread and dry white wine.

[Nogrod]

Now this is a fairly nice one as well. The herbs get rich as the summer goes by and the taste of them is just overwhelming! You may use any herbs you have at your disposal but this is the basic recipe... The oven-pan you should use should end up with about 2 centimeters thick omelette - otherwise you should adsjust the cooking time.

6 eggs, shaken and stirred
salt and pepper (black and white pepper both)
250g. of spinach
1 clove of garlic, diced (not crushed)
1 medium-sized leek diced very small
(1-2 shallots cut in small pieces)
a handful of coriander, cut into small pieces
a handful of parsley, cut into small pieces
a handful of chives, cut into small pieces
a handful of mint, cut into small pieces
a handful of tarragon, cut into small pieces
a nahdful of Dill-weed, cut into small pieces
(you can substitute any one of the herbs with dried ones by changing the amount from a "handful" to a "spoonful"... not to say that the fresh ones are 100 times better than the dried ones here - but you have the choice here: use as many herbs you wish and whichever you have)
Butter and olive 0il
(a handful of pine nuts)

1. Put on the oven into 170C (about 350F). Melt a piece of butter and some olive oil in a pan and sautée the garlic, the leek and the shallots in medium heat for about five minutes- until soft but not browned.

2. Wash and trim the spinach by cutting the stalks from them and then cutting them into stripes. Add the spinach to the onions and fry for five minutes more or until the spinach is getting soft.

3. Meanwhile break the eggs into a bowl and stir them lightly. Add salt and the peppers. Chop the herbs and add them to the eggs as well. The following stuff should be kind of like half herbs, half egg... so not like a traditional omelette but really thick with the herbs.

4. Add the onions and spinach to the bowl of eggs and herbs and transform the stuff to an oven dish. (Dry the pan and heat the pine nuts until lightly browned. Add to the eggs...) Stir gently and put in to the oven. Let the Eggah cook for 15 to 20 minutes.

5. Let cool for ten minutes before slicing it to pieces and serving as a meal with salad, tomato & cucumber (dressed with mint) and fresh white bread or as a side dish to any meats.

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

One thing to point out, I do not eat pork, so what my family does for "bacon"... My mom is a vegetarian so she eats veggie bacon and my dad is not so he eats turkey bacon or beef bacon... so if you don't eat bacon you can still have a nice hobbit meal with vegetable "bacon" or "bacon" made with other meats, there is other options.

And also didn't in RotK it said that in the summer of 1420 the hobbit children were practically swimming in strawberries and creme? So wouldn't that mean that hobbits eat strawberries?

[Thinlómien]

I'm too lazy to find the exact quote, but isn't Sam in Mordor dreaming about waddling through the river? If hobbits fished like standing in a river and piercing the fish with harpoons?

And of course, we're forgetting one of the most famous parts of the chapter of Herbs and stewed rabbit! Sam boasts to Gollum about S. Gamgee's fish and chips. That, if something, proves that hobbits ate fish.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Thinlomien

I'm too lazy to find the exact quote, but isn't Sam in Mordor dreaming about waddling through the river? If hobbits fished like standing in a river and piercing the fish with harpoons?

And of course, we're forgetting one of the most famous parts of the chapter of Herbs and stewed rabbit! Sam boasts to Gollum about S. Gamgee's fish and chips. That, if something, proves that hobbits ate fish.

There are lots of ways of fishing that don't involve getting in a boat, from trout tickling to basket casting, to even stringing up nets across a watercourse to catch whatever might swim or drift that way. I'm sure Hobbits would think of some ingenious way of catching tasty fisheses that didn't involve nassty boatses!

And it seems Gollum himself is skilled in the art of trout tickling, something I can imagine many a Hobbit lad doing on a hot day.

I wonder if there was a water bailiff in the Shire, waiting to catch people without a permit? It's happened to me, that's why I find the thought appealing...

Originally Posted by Jenny Hallu

Perhaps Tolkien decided that potatoes, in the 450 some odd years since their introduction in Europe, had become such an integral part of the culture and cuisine of the British Isles he could not separate them. Or maybe it didn't occur to him to try. Sometimes I fear we read too much into the tale...As my husband would say, "Sometimes a red car is just a red car," signifying nothing beyond the idea that perhaps Tolkien had a soft spot for fish and chips, or for tobacco.

I think taters have become such a strong feature in British cuisine that we almost think they are a native vegetable! Part of the reason (amongst many) why Ireland suffered so badly during the potato famine was that they had such an agricultural monoculture and had few other crops to fall back on when blight struck! I know that where I grew up there were fields as far as you could see which were devoted to growing taters.

EDIT: I've just found out that tobacco will grow just about anywhere - it's a big crop in Sweden apparently, where chewing tobacco is popular - it's called snus. What's more, it's totally legal and duty free. So pipeweed is perfectly feasible in a Shire which is equivalent to England.

[JennyHallu]

EDIT: I've just found out that tobacco will grow just about anywhere - it's a big crop in Sweden apparently, where chewing tobacco is popular - it's called snus. What's more, it's totally legal and duty free. So pipeweed is perfectly feasible in a Shire which is equivalent to England.

Yay! Thank you Lalwende for making me feel smart...wonderful to be conjecturizing (BSing) and have some dedicated, intelligent individual do the research that proves you correct!

Oh...and I think Dalemen came up with sandwiches. Don't ask me why, it doesn't matter, I can just picture Brand sitting with his feet on a table chowing down on a great big slab of roast-beef sandwiched between thick slices of dark bread with horseradish.

THERE IS NO LOGIC TO THIS BELIEF. But I am SURE that Dalemen like sandwiches.

[Nogrod]

Good points over Hobbits eating fish. I'll surely change my mindset with this one - and start to plan fish-recipies for hobbits. There seem to be some natural limitations though: no sea-fish (tuna, swordfish etc.), and propably less of salmon-like "big-ones" (I'm not totally sure about this later one, but at least for a while, it seems right). So, small fish, white-fleshed - I don't have a vocabulary at my home at the moment, so I couldn't give any suggestions, but in Finnish...

We'll come back to this, feel free to make suggestions!

And JennyHallu! I do share your weird idea of sandwiches with the Dalemen. There seems to be something right in that one, don't know why, either. Let's see, if we can come with a reasoning over that?

Concerning potatoes. I would be ready to line up with those who think, that Tolkien just felt them so indispendable with his time's British kitchen, that he didn't pay any attention... and anyway, after being imported from South-Americas to Europe in this real world, they surely grow well here. So why to take the actual botanical history of the "real world" as a reference to things in the Middle Earth? The same goes with tobacco, and why not with some other items too: tomatoes and (bell)peppers for example? These are not original plants of Europe either... Whether the Middle Earth has anything to do with Europe in the first place, that's also another question to be asked? But clearly, it's our only way to go: early twentieth century Europe. That was Tolkien's world from which he wrote from.

Sorry, but I have been busy lately, and will be for a couple of days. I'll open the new thread for the "recipies only", in the near future, and try to open it up with some new recipies, some vegetarian one's also. Be ready to contribute your own to that shared thread!

And lastly: talking about vegetarianism. Do you think the Beornings were just vegetarians, or were they also vegans? So did they approve of the use of the products from animals (milk, cheese, hides - after the death of an animal, etc.) or were they strictly against any usage of the animal-products? Who remembers "the Hobbit" the best? I think, I would go for just vegetarianism, but have you others any ideas, or grounds for thinking the other way around?

[Lalwendë]

They could have salmon in The Shire - the Brandywine is a long river, and I imagine if there were Salmon in Middle earth then they might swim up it. they could be caught at weirs, or even with nets strung across the river. Maybe Brandybucks liked a spot of fly fishing?

I can imagine Eels would have been eaten too, caught from small streams.

The Beornings must have been vegetarian, not vegan, as they ate honey didn't they?