Paksworld

So…Paksworld’s northern kingdoms are more like Europe north of the Alps, in terms of what they grow and eat, and Aarenis is more like the Mediterranean countries.   But there are variations.   Paks’s family had a small amount of land under plough,  for grain and the few vegetables they grew; they also harvested field herbs, wild berries,  and some wild grains.    The nearest mill was a considerable distance away, so her family ground grain to make bread in hand mills (stone.)   Grain was also cooked into a mush, flavored with herbs and sometimes meat.   They were lucky in having good-quality hand mills that didn’t put a lot of stone dust in the meal, so they didn’t have their teeth ground down.

They could buy a limited assortment of spices down in Three Firs two or three times a year when  a trader came in, or trade for what someone else grew.   (For instance, they could buy a chunk of salt pork from the pig farmer whose son Paks didn’t marry, or cow-milk cheese from a farmer down the vale who kept cattle) , pears or apples or plums from those at a lower elevation who had fruit trees.   They also bought salt, not having a local source for it.  They didn’t have much sib, because the right trees didn’t grow there, and buying the makings for it cost enough that it was saved for medicinal use or a rare treat.  They ate mutton and anything wild they could manage to kill, but the content of meals varied a lot with the seasons…and could be monotonous day by day.

Although they weren’t near starving,  food was not abundant for much of the year.    Paks’s mother made a little sheep-milk cheese to sell, and a little for the family, but spent more time spinning wool into yarn and then making things with it.  Paks knew how to do basic knitting and darning when she entered the Duke’s Company.    They didn’t eat fish, because they didn’t have a river in which to catch them (they had springs, a well, small seasonal streams.)    The only sweetener was honey,  which they could buy in stone jars, in the comb, at the market, but they could also rob wild bee hives.

In the Duke’s Company, Paks first saw abundant food every day,  several times a day…and foods she’d never met before.   Beef, pork, and mutton,  bread made from mill-ground flour using brewery yeast (since the area had both a mill and an experienced brewer),  apples from Kolya’s orchard, and meals cooked by actual cooks.  Still fairly simple, but more abundant and varied than at home.    Eggs–a luxury at home, though her family kept a few hens–were the main reason for keeping chickens, though old hens and roosters yielded chicken stock .   Some of the villagers kept bees and the honey harvest was usually good.  The Duke’s Company bought spices and wine and other condiments and special foods from Aarenis, but did not import southern grains, sticking to the wheat/oats/barley/rye traditional in its area.     The mix of bark,  roots, stems, and leaves for sib was stocked as a normal expense–everyone drank it.   Some of these were for the officers’ table, but experience had shown that introducing recruits to the foods they would meet later cut down on sickness in the South.    At least they wouldn’t mistake a hot pepper for a sweet fruit.

Food for the troops on campaign needed to be ample (they’re working hard), something that could be cooked in large amounts on the trail, in camp, etc. and thus choice was limited though amounts were generous.   Helping prepare raw foods for cooking was a normal duty for soldiers, as was cleaning up after a meal.  (The more people who know how to cook a grain mush and redroots, the less chance of hungry troops if the cook gets killed.)   Troops liked to visit inns in the neighborhood, but the dangers of poisoning (accidental, from spoiled food, or intention, by an enemy) were more than negligible, so they were allowed into towns only during ‘safe’ periods.

“Inn food,” like restaurant food today, varied from plain to fancy.   Small inns might offer only one menu a day; large ones (like the White Dragon in Valdaire) would have several choices.  But all had to be food that could be cooked in a standard way to serve many people, unless the patron paid for special service.   Another source of income for inns was renting out oven space for those who had none–for a very small fee, someone could bring in a pot of something, or dough to be baked.   (In the smallest towns, there would already be a town bread oven.)    Inns sourced their food locally, but that included the local market–they did not grow their own, especially in cities.  (In smaller towns, like Brewersbridge, they might keep chickens for eggs.)    Householders in the city bought their flour already milled and bought most of the other ingredients in the market, though some had plots on which to raise “kitchen” food (vegetables, perhaps berries, even a fruit tree.)    They had access to seasonal fruits and vegetables without having to grow them.    Some bought bread from a baker, but many bought flour and made their own.

Elaborate meals certainly were cooked here and there, but only the very wealthy had fancy food every day, and the various religions all had beliefs about what level of fancy was acceptable (and what was just showing off.)   Feasts always included rich foods–meat and sauces for it,  abundant other foods in more variety than usual, sweets.   The lowest class of workers (rural or urban) subsisted mostly on bread, steamed and boiled grains and beans, a few vegetables, and occasional meat, mostly cooked in with the grains and beans.  Up from that, class by class, came better-quality bread, more variety of vegetables, more condiments and preserved foods (jam, pickles, cheese etc.) , more meat, and more total calories.  Even the richest could not get delicate berries out of season, except as preserves.  But they could afford everything available in their city or region, and thus enjoy more variety than others.

Table-settings and utensils:  different qualities of pottery were available to all, with regional differences in both quality and design.    In cities, everyone above the lowest class would eat off of pottery plates and out of pottery bowls, and have at least a pottery mug to drink from.    The very lowest class would probably have flattish wooden tray-plates, and perhaps a bit pottery bowl or pot (the one they cooked in) to serve from.   Eating utensils included (with variations from place to place) forks (2-4 pronged),  spoons (round and narrow),  and knives (all sharp, all derived from daggers if not actually daggers.  Some were sharp on both sides, some only on one.)  In the lowest class, one dagger might be shared around the table, and the forks and spoons might be wooden or bone.  Above that, most people had at least some metal utensils.

Those living near one of the large rivers eat larger fish (with the attendant problems of larger fish going bad faster!) and baked fish is a staple at inns in cities along the Immer drainage–less so in Vérella.    Fish is definitely a staple food in Pargun, Kostandan, riverside-and-coastal Dzordanya, and Prealíth.   The Seafolk arrived in the north with a tradition of smoking and salting fish for preservation.  They eat fish year-round.   Other seafood is popular in these areas as well, but they haven’t convinced their neighbors yet.  Rivers in both north and south have the kinds of fish you’d expect in streams and rivers in equivalent latitudes and climates here.   Marine fish was just as diverse and include some…um…local specialities.  Alas, they don’t enter the story.

So…there’s an overview of what people eat, sort of.  Recipes–more or less, because I’m an instinctive cook who looks at recipes as suggestions–to follow.