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

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 some fruit or soft cheese 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 and fruit. The sweetmeat is almost always a type of light cake (such as a cake with cream), pie or tart, or a syllabub or trifle or something similar. 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 dessert course consists of a pudding along with cheeses and fruit. The pudding may be a steamed or boiled pudding, a jelly pudding or a denser cake, pie or tart.