Erbonian cuisine

The cuisine of Great Nortend is a cuisine influenced by the diverse regions and peoples of Great Nortend. Many Erbonian dishes consist of cooked meat or vegetables or both along with a sauce, which is usually served separately. Spices other than pepper, nutmeg, cloves, saffron, cinnamon and carpepper are not commonly used, but fresh herbs are used plentifully.

The cuisine is highly regional; however, can be broadly characterised into three main styles—Southern, Medden and Hambrian. Seasonal and local produce are also highly important, especially as refrigeration is not common. The fasting days such as those in Lent, Advent and on all Fridays throughout the year also have influenced Erbonian cuisine, such that there are numerous recipes for meat-free or fish-based dishes suitable to be served thereupon.

Styles

A typical Erbonian place setting set for the first soup course.

Since the 16th or 17th centuries, the Most Honourable Compagnie of Cooks, a guild of Lendert-with-Cadell, have controlled much of the “high cookery” of Great Nortend, and its master cooks were and still are the only cooks permitted to be employed in the royal kitchens. The food of the royal court is highly influential to this day, and has always featured regional specialities from the various provinces and counties of the country.

Though consistently aimed for by the middling class burgesses, the royally-sanctioned style of high cookery was not reasonably attainable thereby until the publication of “A Guide to the Mystery of Cookery” by George Marflet, the Master of Cookery to the Duke of Alvington, Henry de Leavil, in 1856, which systematically instructed household cooks and housewives on the techniques and methods of high cookery adapted to the traditional regional 'commoner' cuisines. With increasing literacy and education, this has percolated to the working classes who, although content to cook in the peasant fashion throughout the week, often make a greater effort on Sundays and holidays in the higher styles.

Meal structure

Three meals a day has been the standard in Great Nortend since the 19th century, although the name of the meals, their contents and their time differ. A light breakfast is usually eaten in the morning, with a moderate luncheon in the early afternoon and a heavy dinner in the evening. Traditionally a heavy dinner was eaten around the time of the modern luncheon, and a moderate supper in the evening. Nowadays this is only common amongst the rural peasantry, although a light supper is still commonly served in the late evening.

Breakfast

Breakfast is usually taken in two courses—a cooked course followed by a bread course. The cooked course consists of cooked dishes such as eggs, bacon, saulted mushrumps and potato, sausages, cutlets, fish, porridge, meat pies or fried meat buns. It is usually eaten with white tea. The bread course consists of a type of bread, usually with spreads such as butter, dripping, jam, marmelade, honey or glase of beef, or more occassionally, sweet pastries, scones or fruit buns. It is usually eaten with cheeses, fruit and nuts, and white coffee. Children will often drink plain milk instead of coffee.

Luncheon

Luncheon normally consists of three courses—a soup course, an luncheon course, and a dessert course. At luncheon, usually a light watered soup is served. The luncheon course is usually a dish of meat or fish with vegetable sides. The dessert course consists of a sweetmeat, cheeses, fruit and nuts. It is popular to 'save' the dessert, eating it in the mid-afternoon almost as a collation.

Dinner

Dinner is usually a full four or five course meal consisting of a soup course, an entry course, a sorbet, a second course and a dessert course. More courses may be included, but it is not considered good manners to offer more than seven courses at a dinner. A remove course is popular after the entry or a game course after the second course, or both in the most lavish banquets.

At dinner, the soup course is usually a heavier cream soup. The entry course often is fish or small cuts of meat or stew, but is usually lighter than the second course. The remove course, if served, is another entry course. The sorbet is optional, but very common if fish or a strongly flavoured entry has been served, in order to cleanse the palate. The second course is usually meat, especially whole cuts of roast meat. The game course is a course of game or other stronger-flavoured meat such as lamb or kid. The sweet course consists of a sweetmeat along with cheeses, fruit and nuts.

Foods

Meat

White pullet is a speciality of Aceshire.

The average person eats 6 st (62·7 kg) of meat annually, excluding fish which is not considered meat. The most common meats are beef, pork, lamb, veal, chicken and mutton, collectively known as butchers' meats. Other meats are mostly game meats, which include coney (rabbit), hare, squirrel, boar, kid-goat, venison and the numerous game birds such as pheasant, grouse, woodcock, widgeon, canard (duck), goose, swan, peacock, quail, squab and partridge. The bulk of game is eaten by the upper classes; however, some of the lesser game meats such as squab, squirrel, coney, canard and goose are common on the dining tables of commoners.

Meat is predominantly roasted, fried, poached or braised. Braised meat is not often seen in high cookery, but is common in the cookery of commoners. Pork is commonly processed into sausages, hams or bacon. Meat is also often served in pastry and baked, boiled or steamed. Offal cuts are also popular.

Fish

Fish makes up a large portion of the Erbonian diet, mostly on the fish days of Lent, Advent, most Fridays and other fasting days throughout the church calendar. Common fish include cod, salmon, trout, herrings, perch, pike, carp, eel, sole, and plaice. Shellfish are also very common and include mussels, cockles (including scallops), oysters, crabs, crayfish, lobster, calamar and prawns. Fish is usually poached, grilled or fried. With the introduction of refrigerated railway vans, inland areas have access to fresh fish which has partly supplanted the traditional river fish and preserved fish thitherto common.

Vegetables

Brown mushrumps are common.

Erbonian cuisine also features many different kinds of vegetables, especially in the spring and summer when they are in season. Root vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, onions, eschalots, parsnips and turnips are common, as well as green vegetables, especially cabbage and lettuce. Peas and beans are very common. Asparagus is very popular in the spring time. Fungi such as mushrumps, truffles, morels and jewsear are highly regarded. Bread products are a staple, and Great Nortend has over 1,000 different types of bread products. Common breads are divided into white bread, brown bread and black bread.

Sauces

Sauces are a critical component of Erbonian cuisine, of which there are six 'great' sauces which are all thickened in different ways. These are brown sauce, cream sauce, blond sauce, custard sauce, green sauce and bread sauce. Brown sauce is simply stock reduced until thickened. Cream sauce is made with stock thickened with starch and clotted cream. Blond sauce is made from stock and lear, which is made by cooking clarified butter and starch. Custard sauce is made with stock thickened with egg yolks and vinegar. Green sauce is made with stock thickened with vinegar and chopped herbs. Bread sauce is made by thickening stock with breadcrumbs. On fish days, either fish stock or vegetable stock is used instead of meat stock.

From these great sauces, numerous different small sauces can be created by adding ingredients and combining sauces. For example, clove sauce which is served with roast poultry is made by adding cloves, eschalots and milk to a bread sauce, and Scodelier sauce which is served with boiled beef is made by adding horseradish and brown sauce to green sauce. A common sauce is gravy sauce, which is made by combining deglazed drippings with cream sauce, brown sauce or blond sauce.

Sauces are served in sauceboats with ladles, not with the main dish.

Condiments

Condiments are commonly served alongside dishes and their sauces. Standard condiments include salt, pepper and nutmeg, which are usually presented in matching salt pots and pepper and nutmeg mills. Other condiments include vinegar, mustard sauce, horseradish sauce, currant sauce and mint sauce.

Sourcing

Most people purchase fresh meat, fish, fruit, vegetables and bread from local shops, as supermarkets do not exist. Most villages and towns have several greengrocers (fresh food), grocers (preserved or dried food), butchers, fishmongers and bakers, and householders normally stick to the same establishments for generations. Many households grow their own herbs, fruit and vegetables.