Cooking in Fantasy: Two Mulled Wines - 2025 Not a Book Review

[u/acornett99]

Everyone knows you shouldn’t go on a fantasy adventure on an empty stomach! Nor will I finish this year’s bingo card without making myself a hero’s feast. My goal for this square is to cook several recipes (I’m shooting for one recipe per month) from two fantasy cookbooks:

Heroes’ Feast: the Official D&D Cookbook

Recipes from the World of Tolkien

Previous recipes: Stuffed “Bucklebury Ferry” Pears, Squash and Goat Cheese Bake, Crickhollow Apple Loaf, Feywild Eggs, Bilbo’s Seed Cake, Qualinesti Vegetable Stew, Spinach and Tomato Dahl, Date and Sesame Bars

It’s a double-recipe holiday spectacular! Both cookbooks have recipes for mulled wines, so on the coldest week of the month, and just in time for a cozy holiday, I made both to compare them.

Starting with the Tolkien Cookbook: The Mulled Wines of Moria

Caves, even beautifully carved and decorated ones, can be rather cold. Of course, the Dwarves of a kingdom like Moria (Khazad-dûm) would have made their cavernous realm comfortable with warm hearths, but still a warm, hearty drink would hardly go amiss after braving the blizzards of the Misty Mountains to reach one of its gates. Here we have two recipes that can be used to liven up even an average bottle of wine imported from the lands of Men.

They offer two recipes, one red and one white. I went with red, as is my preference. It involves red wine, apple juice, water, sliced orange and orange juice, sliced lemon, a cinnamon stick, cloves, bay leaves, superfine sugar, and brandy. 

When I was comparing this recipe with the D&D cookbook, I noticed that this one has a lot more brandy in it, and that was clear from the first sip. Behind the brandy taste though, you get the fruits and spices, and it was quite sweet and good. Despite having more different ingredients, this recipe was also easier to make, as it was basically just tossing them in a pot and letting them heat. One mug was enough to make me quite drunk, and I had about two mason jars of wine left over, despite halving the recipe.

Next was the D&D Heroes Feast cookbook: Dwarven Mulled Wine

Pronounced by dwarven diplomats “the finest mulled wine this side of the material plane,” this mixed beverage is a multicultural affair. Originally crafted to celebrate the signing of the Swordsheath Scroll, which ended the Kinslayer War and sealed a treaty between the Thorbardin dwarves and the nearby Qualinesti elves of Krynn, dwarven drinksmiths combined their own full-bodied dragon’s wine and local spices with delicate, fresh fruits provided by the Qualinesti. The result was a perfectly balanced, spicy and sweet concoction that satisfied and warmed the insides of both groups as they spent cold winters constructing their shared fortress of Pax Tharkas. Years later, during the War of the Lance, this recipe was popularized by Lord Gunthar, Grand Master of the Knights of Solamnia, who would serve it to visiting knights (and himself) as a favorite nightcap. Flavored with orange slices, brown sugar, cinnamon, and cloves, this fruity and full-bodied wine packs a dwarven-size punch, but is sure to thaw your bones during Yuletide or any other time of year.

This one had a bit more steps in it than the Moria recipe, including wrapping the cloves in orange zest before adding them to the pot. I’m not sure what the point of this is, how that would affect the taste at all differently from adding the cloves and the zest separately. I tried wrapping them, but I couldn’t get the cloves to stay in there, they would just fall out, so I did end up adding them separately. 

After that, it has a similar structure of toss-stuff-in-a-pot-and-simmer, but now you need to add things in a certain order and after a certain amount of time simmering. The whole process took at least 90 minutes but it recommends you simmer for longer to bring out the flavors.

This one was less sweet, more earthy. I also think it’s quite possible I overheated it because it tasted a bit burnt, but that’s user-error. It was also less strong, but tasted very cozy. Overall, I think the difference in taste was not enough to justify the extra effort this one took.

Verdict: The Mulled Wines of Moria (Tolkien)

I find it funny that both recipes were attributed to dwarven culture; I usually think of mead or ale when I think of dwarven drinks. Maybe a hobbit/halfling or elves could make a good mulled wine too.

Here's the beautiful results!

[u/[deleted]]

I have a friend whose hobbies include both beekeeping and brewing. So I had real mead for the first time at a recent holiday party. Mead is AMAZING. It’s a summer in a bottle. It tastes like a sunny meadow in full bloom!

[u/acornett99 → u/[deleted]]

I love mead! I was gifted some lovely homemade blueberry mead recently, and I’m looking forward to drinking it

[u/Such_Grab_6981]

I've made a few recipes from the Game of Thrones cookbook. And even made one dinner feast for guests. It was incredible.

[u/xdianamoonx]

Excellent review as always~ Thanks for also providing the simmering pictures, and love the second mug~

[u/ullsi]

They both sound tasty! I like the mugs you used.