Greetings my fine friends and fellow feasters, I welcome you to a particular pleasure of a thread devoted to the fabulous foods of our frequent fantasies and the recipes and recettes that enable us poor bound mortals to filch some semblance of the flights of imagination that we who enjoy a good recipe have found or fantasized for ourselves.

As some of you may now be aware, there are two cookbooks out for 5th Edition D&D. They are not the first cookbooks, nor the only ones out there related to the pleasures of epicurean delight in realms beyond the woods, but they are the official cookbooks, given the imprimatur thereof, even if they currently lack availability herein.

Now we have a cooking show, an adventure, and these two cookbooks with a potential for more to come -- and that's only touching on the surface, since we know there are other D&D related cookbooks out there (There is even one for Tal'Dorei, I hear...).

I purchased both the cookbooks. I love to cook, I create recipes and try out new things (it is about a third my food budget). When I was lucky enough to have in person gaming sessions, it started small -- calzones became a thing I made for every session in the 90's, and it got more complex from there. I have normally made the meal something that is based in whatever world I happened to be running in -- and I only do OC worlds -- so the cookbooks were a fun read for me, and of course when you read a cookbook and you like to cook, you get up and do it.

One of the things I have long done is to re-create "lost recipes", or try to experience foods from the past.  WHile a lot were stunningly boring, the nice thing about fantasy stuff is that you don't have to deal with it.  All of which is to say that I really get into this stuff. To the point where I have a lot of recipes for all of my worlds, and I've created a good 30 or so over the last 40 plus years of D&D.

So, with that, I open this thread for commentary, creativity, and culinary chimeras, and will herein share my thoughts on the assorted recipes found in the books, as well as possibly share some of my own -- while encouraging you all to do likewise.

My first review will start, naturally enough, with the first recipe from the first book: Traveler's Stew.

This is a very simple beef stew recipe, marked chiefly by the use of dark beer principally for deglazing. Beef stew is one of those dishes that is both particularly easy and also very easy to screw up. 

It uses a fairly standard approach, and is startlingly cheap. I liked the addition of paprika -- I used a smoked form, which was nice. My second attempt I opted to use some smoked pork butt and started with a base of Minor's Pork Base for the broth -- essentially creating a Pork stew variant.

It absolutely jumped the flavor profile a big notch, and had the bonus of being slightly more "true to life" in a lot of ways.

I am a fan of deep flavors, so I also suggest adding a bit of beef boullion (cubes or granules) to the beer dring deglazing. The salt is useful.

I also am a fan of "thicker" fluid, so I suggest adding a bit of cornstarch to the same point -- the flour on the beef isn't going to be enough, and cornstarch is fairly flavorless (potato is better, especially since they suggest yukon golds, which are less starchy).

next up is one of my least favorite of the recipes, but that's mostly because I am some kind of elitist, lol. That's the Iron Rations recipe. 

it's a trail mix.

I mean, ok, I get it, modern world and all, popularity of meat and cheese trays, blah blah, but...

No. That is not iron rations, lol.

You know what would be closer? Tamales. Meat Pies. Hell, I would have settled for spicy hardtack.

I laughed out loud at this recipe. I felt insulted by it, lol. See? Some kind of elitist or something. It is a decent recipe -- for a meat and cheese plate. Yes, I know there's a whole fancy word for them these days, but I dinnae care. It's a freaking lunchable.

With wheat thins.

gyah.

I saw that and said "what would they do to elven waybread?". 

So, yeah, I wasn't a fan. Also, I mean, yes, it works great for serving at a game table -- no question. But how the hell do you plate that interestingly?

Ok, y'all can chime in...

This was my main complaint with the first book too -- a few of the recipes were very ordinary and very simple. I remember one for candy apples, and one for gingerbread cookies. I feel like, unless they're doing something special to make these recipes feel more rustic somehow, they could really just say "candy apples and gingerbread cookies are also found in the Realms" and leave it to me to figure that one out.

I've never cooked with beer but I'd be up to try it. I remember going through my book and tallying up ingredients that were shared across recipes. They did a pretty good job of it as I recall. That's useful for things typically bought in large portions. Since this one is more eclectic, I'm curious if that was a priority.

To be clear, that was a big hassle that I never actually finished. I don't expect you to do it on my account, I just thought I'd draw your attention to it in case you notice any trends.

So, I haven't' forgotten this little task of mine, and I will continue.

I did run into a small issue here: I had to clean my kitchen and restock a fridge due to a failed compressor. Makes me wish I had a magical "always cool" box.

One of the best recipes in the book is the Sword Coast Seafood Bouillabaisse.

One small complaint I have is the suggestion of using an anise-flavored liqueur instead of, well, a pinch of actual anise (which is what I used). Aside from being terribly anachronistic in my opinion (not that the use of fennel, saffron, leeks, and bay aren't, lol), it is something that steps outsid ethe broader books ethos of not really requiring one to buy something unusual for a modern kitchen.

Change up the spices slightly, and this would make a fantastic Paella, which is a similar dish anyway.

Heading up the coast, to Icewind dale, they then offer a standard take on a trout fillet. I've always been partial to whole trout, but this wasn't bad and gave me an excuse to have something for a visitor the night I had planned to make it.

I have almost always had trout pan-fried, so it wasn't new to me, but my guest had never had trout before (I picked mine up via Wal-mart, so farm raised). The recipe is a basic, nothing fancy one, and my only worry is the same I always have with pan fried filets, which is that folks not familiar with cooking fish will overcook it.

Next up was Ampahil braised Beef, and while Stone fruit is a traditional European cooking fruit, https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dmg/running-the-game#LineofSight was surprised by the pairing it with beef.

I think it could have done with one fewer onion, but they are actually a major part of the tenderizing aspect of the cooking. I would suggest using onions that are not very strong for it, and they made a good call by specifying yellow. I might think that sweet onions would go well -- depend son how much you like the sweetness to be involved.

That said, a note about it...

One of the most central dishes period wise is sliced roast with gravy. Actual gravy of the time was more than just the juices -- it was typically thickened slightly with a bit of wine and flour. I would suggest doing that, and then slicing thinner slices -- 1/4" instead of 1/2.  This will give it a more rich flavor profile, and won't overpower any sides you may have with it, nor be too heavy, since one would presumably be playing a game after dinner, lol...