In honor of our last cinematic trip to Middle Earth, this week Kitchen Overlord is treating you to one recipe per day from each chapter of An Unexpected Cookbook: The Unofficial Book of Hobbit Cookery. While there’s nothing wrong with some cold chicken and pickles for a quick bite on […]
An Unexpected Cookbook: Hobbit Recipes
Recipes from An Unexpected Cookbook: The Unofficial Book of Hobbit Cookery
Make Your Hobbit Hole Smell Like Christmas with Small Adventure Sized Mincemeat Pies
If you enjoy the hundreds of free recipes here at Kitchen Overlord, help me keep the lights on by picking up a cookbook or two. As a historian who grew up reading Tolkien, An Unexpected Cookbook: The Unofficial Book of Hobbit Cookery is one of my favorites. (You know you’re […]
Hobbit Week: Shire-tastic Seed Cake
Many modern readers imagine seed cake to be chock full of sunflower or pumpkin seeds, but it turns out Tolkien grew up on a decadently buttery version of pound cake full of caraway seeds. They have a sweet, licorice flavor reminiscent of a milder, earthier version of anise seeds. You […]
Hobbit Week: Easy Shire Porter Cake
Don’t be intimidated by the list of ingredients. This isn’t fancy Elven baking chemistry. Like most Shire foods, this is good, solid stuff that can handle a lot of improvisation depending on what you happen to have in your pantry. All you really need is some butter, sugar, flour, eggs, […]
Hobbit Week: Braised Oxtails (with bonus broth)
Wine Braised Oxtails A lot of people shy away from cuts of meat full of bone and fat. It’s a shame, because that’s where the best flavor hides. In Tolkien’s day, nose to tail eating was the norm. A nice segmented oxtail was a great way to get a few […]
Hobbit Week: Plum Heavies
Chocolate and vanilla may seem ubiquitous today, but they’re actually both new world beans. That means Tolkien explicitly excluded them from the Shire, even though both flavors were quite popular in Victorian England. Plum Heavies were the cheap, kids cookies of their day. Victorian country cooks would knead in a […]