Erbonian cuisine

The traditional cuisine of Great Nortend is a cuisine influenced by the diverse regions and peoples of Great Nortend. Most 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, cinnamon, mustard, anise, caraway and juniper 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 — corresponding to the three major divisions of the national. The seasons and local produce are a strong influence on Erbonian cookery, especially as refrigeration is not extremely common. The fasting days such as those in Lent, Advent and on all Fridays throughout the year also have influenced Erbonian cookery, 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 throughout history always featured regional specialities from the various regions 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. Traditionally amongst the working classes, a heavy dinner is eaten at the time of luncheon, and a moderate supper in the evening. A light breakfast is usually eaten in the morning. Since the early 20th century, however, in imitation of the middling and upper classes, a heavy supper as dinner is now ubiquitous, with a moderate luncheon.

An exception to this routine occurs on Sundays and other feast days when instead of luncheon, a heavy dinner is served in the early afternoon, with a moderate supper in the evening and a light collation instead of breakfast. This so-called 'Sunday dinner' stems from the mandated Eucharistic fast prior to communion Such a dinner is typically served in two courses consisting of a main course with roasted meat, vegetables, puddings, breads &c. followed by a dessert course. The collation must be eaten at least one hour prior to receiving the Eucharist and may not contain bread, meat, alcohol or blood. A traditional collation consists of an omelet with herbs and mushrumps.

On minor fasts, including on every Friday and during Lent and Advent, there are more stringent fasting and abstinence requirements which limit meals to a dinner after dark and two light meals or collations. Furthermore, no meat may be eaten, although eggs, cooking fat and dairy are now permitted in 'reasonable' amounts. On certain fast days, there is a major fast where no meat products may be eaten, and meals are limited to a dinner after sunset and one light collation.

Breakfast

Breakfast is usually taken in two courses—a cooked course followed by a bread course, usually served as a buffet from a sideboard. 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. Porridge is also popular instead of bread. 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 course meal consisting of a soup course, a first course, 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 sorbet or entremet between the first course and the second course is popular. A remove course is popular after the first course 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 first 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 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, lightly fried, poached or stewed. 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. Roasted joints of meat are particularly popular, as are cutlets and nutlets. Poached veal fillet is especially popular served with Scodelier sauce. Stews, though common in home cookery, are seldom seen in greater establishments.

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, blonde 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. Blonde sauce is made from stock and lear, which is made by cooking clarified butter and starch. Custard sauce is made with stock thickened with butter, 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 poached 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

Some Macedonian Jellies.

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.

Sweets

Erbonian sweet puddings and desserts are well known. Many feature spices, fruit and nuts. Marzipan is very popular, as well as sweet shortbreads and tilebreads. Cakes are also a favourite dessert, with many types. Most traditional cakes are leavened with beaten eggs, such as the traditional sponge cake, or creamed butter and sugar, such as in a fruitcake. Chocolate desserts are popular north of the Monmorians, such as the Gallet of the Wolds with chocolate, redcurrants and strawberries and covered in cream, a gallet being a type of cake with layers filled with cream. Desserts based on whipped cream and fruit are popular in the south, such as redcurrant fool or orange syllabub. Jellies are especially popular at dinners and some such as a Macedonian jelly are many inches high and filled with fruit.

Regional cuisine

Southern Erbonia

Herstlow ham is made from truffle pigs fattened on chestnuts and walnuts and cured with truffles.

Lesser Erbonia is known for its more temperate climate. It has a terrain of gentle hills with hillier country along the Central Welds.

Duremenshire, Enley and North Larkshire

Pistachios, apricots and almonds are specialities of the north-eastern counties and feature heavily in its sweets. Pastipane, a confection similar to marzipan but made from pistachios, is produced in Enley, often in the form of gallets of St. Frith where green pastipane discs have marzipan crosses or religious symbols moulded on, or vice versa. Hoseforth almond cream is another popular dessert local to Market Hoseforth. The Durmen cow is known for its milk which is very high in cream which is used to make a local ice-cream flavoured with almonds and pistachios. Saulted hare in cream which is marinated in cream and almonds before saulting and served with an almond cream sauce is a well-known dish in northern Larkshire.

Teyshire, Swent, Dershire and East Herstlow

Plums, sloes and prunes, as well as melons are produced in Teyshire and Swent. In the south of Swent, walnutbread is a popular sweetbread. Along the coast, seafood and shellfish feature in the cuisine, which are often poached in local fruit liqueurs. Trout and carp are also plentiful in the large rivers which wind through the region. Alvington beef is highly regarded as being very tender, high in cartilage and highly marbled. The cuisine is heavy on bread products. Dershire is known for its Lord Oswald buns, which are filled with prune paste and spices, and the ubiquitous sponge bread, a spoft white bread with large holes.

On the eastern coast, knedlings with dumplings is a common dish in the east, served in a veal or seafood stock. Cockles and clams are harvested, which are eaten with cocklebread, a brown bread slashed to resemble a scallop shell. Veal is the most popular meat in this region as it mainly runs dairy cattle, especial veal stews, although pork products are also common. Bacon of Everchester is a local bacon which is mostly fat.

Western Counties

The western counties are known for their cattle, and along the southern coast, shellfish which features heavily in the cuisine. Mussels and oysters are farmed in the south-eastern counties. Cod, bass and western sole are popular along the northern coast, usually served grilled with a white wine sauce. Prawns are also caught, and served fried. Strutton stewpot, made with onions and beef is popular, as well as brisquet of beef, a cured 'ham' made from beef brisket which is cold smoked.

Larkshire and northern Bentshire and Essingfordshire produce much of the island's green produce, especially in the 'Garden Triangle' between Lendert, Smallassingham and Quenlington where asparagus and salad greens are produced in abundance, and the so-called Garden of Limmes in northern Larkshire where cauliflowers, broccoli, lettuce, chicory, sorrel and particular watercress are grown in abundance. Elixir of Quenlington, a green herbal liqueur produced by the monks of Quenlington Abbey, is produced here. Suet beef pie and shortbread are staples of the inland regions. Alsby tart, made with squab or quails, is traditional in Castle Alsby.

Central Welds

Throughout the the Central Welds, sheep are farmed. There are many kinds of sheep's cheese produced in the region. In the western Welds, the mushrump of the welds is a local delicacy, although many other kinds of edible mushroom and fungi are found. Black truffles are also common in the forests in the eastern Welds, as well as chestnuts and walnuts. Herstlow ham is a traditional dry cured ham made with truffle pigs fattened on pannage of chestnuts and walnuts and cured with truffles. Olminster cheese is a local delicacy, made by the monks of Olminster Priory with goatsmilk and truffles.

Barminstershire and Walecestershire

These southern counties are known for its woody herbs such as rosemary, lavender, thyme, tarragon and sage which are used in aromatic faggots for flavouring stocks and stews. In terms of meat, the southern counties are mainly known for their poultry, mainly chickens, ducks and geese. Chicken and duck features heavily in the cuisine, especially stews such as chicken of Walecester which is flavoured predominantly with lavender and sage. Beef cattle is also run. Long sausage and bread sausage (a corruption of braided sausage) are local varieties, made with beef. Long sausage is commonly eaten with Inchings cheese, which is a long hard cheese. Grapes are produced in a small region of western Barminstershire. Braised beef in must is a speciality. Beef of Scode is the namesake dish of Scode, which is roast beef served with Scodelier sauce.

Suthrepourdeland and Essingfordshire

These counties are known for its lightly cooked fare. Mussels, cockles, jellyfish, calamar and lobster feature heavily along the coastline. Essingford is known for its crisp Essingford tiles, which are wafers shaped like terracotta tiles and filled with cream and fruit. Further inland, across the Neominstermoors there is plentiful small game and good heather honey. Mandrake carrots, which are distinctively split into many large 'limbs', is served poached. The Chemleywelds and Plumdon Hills are more densely forested primarily with old beech forest. Pilgrim's bread which made from beechnut flour is traditionally eaten by pilgrims walking the Saints' Way from Scode to Sulthey. Echester cheese is one of the most popular cheeses in the country, and is made in Echester.

Medden Erbonia

Medden cuisine is characterised by the mostly highly forested geography of the region, and consequently a strong focus on fresh game and woodland foods such as mushrumps and various fungi. However, being the largest region in Great Nortend, its cuisine is also the most varied.

Hambria

Hambrian cuisine is strongly influenced by the predominant highland plateaux and mountains. The cuisine is heartier than in other regions, with many starchy potato and dumpling dishes. Pork is highly represented in the region, with numerous types of sausages and cured pork products produced. The cooler mountain waters are highly conducive for salmon and trout, as well as whitefish.