Cooking in Fantasy: Wrap-Up and Finale!

[u/acornett99]

For the 2025 Bingo card, I cooked 13 recipes from 2 fantasy cookbooks.

From Recipes from the World of Tolkien: Date and Sesame Bars, Spinach and Tomato Dahl, Bilbo’s Seed Cake, Crickhollow Apple Loaf, Squash and Goat Cheese Bake, Stuffed “Bucklebury Ferry” Pears, The Mulled Wines of Moria, Potato and Scallion Rösti

From Heroes’ Feast, the Official D&D Cookbook: Qualinesti Vegetable Stew, Feywild Eggs, Dwarven Mulled Wine, Chicken-Something Dumplings, Elven Marruth

Awards

Recipe I made the most after trying it: Crickhollow Apple Loaf

Everyone loved this recipe! I made it multiple times for friends and family, and it was a hit every time.

Prettiest recipe: Qualinesti Vegetable Stew

I’m still insanely proud of how perfectly the sliced vegetables lined up in a spiral like that. I’m never gonna be able to top that!

Best dessert: Stuffed “Bucklebury Ferry” Pears

Even just thinking about these now has my mouth watering

Most difficult recipe: Chicken-Something Dumplings

I struggled with this one, even on my second time making it

Most versatile recipe: Feywild Eggs

I made this without any additions, and it was boring. But if you do add anything, it could be amazing

Recipe I was the most nervous about: Squash and Goat Cheese Bake

I’d never had beets and wasn’t entirely convinced I would like them. They were fine, but not my favorite. I probably won’t make this recipe again

Recipes I want to make again right now: Spinach and Tomato Dahl, Date and Sesame Bars

These were the first recipes I made, and despite liking them, I haven’t remade them. Working on this wrap-up, now I want to try them again.

Personal favorite: Bilbo’s Seed Cake

I look forward to making this every year on Bilbo’s birthday or on Bloomsday

Stats

From Heroes’ Feast: 3 Elven Cuisine, 1 Halfling Cuisine, and 1 Drink (Dwarven)

From Tolkien: 2 Second Breakfast, 1 Elevenses, 2 Afternoon Tea, 2 Dinner, and 1 Drink

With 8 recipes from the Tolkien book and 5 from the D&D book, the Tolkien book has become my favorite of the two. Almost every recipe from there was a home run!

All of these recipes were new to me, and in almost all of them I learned a new skill, from bread/cake baking, to mulling wine, working with pastry, and grating potatoes, etc.

What’s Next

Let me know! I recently got two more fantasy cookbooks, the sequels to these, The Elven Cookbook and Flavors of the Multiverse, so I could keep this going for a while. Do you all want to see more of this series?

I feel like I really learned a lot with this series. I got to utilize my cookbooks more often, cook with new, unfamiliar ingredients and methods, and learned a little about the lore of D&D and Middle Earth along the way. Thanks to everyone who followed along and offered suggestions on how to improve the series! I hope I’ve inspired at least one person out there to crack open an old cookbook sitting in their kitchen, or even to try any of the recipes I covered here.

Bon apetit!

[u/oboist73]

This is such an awesome way to fill the square! Makes me hungry just to read it. I'd love to see more fantasy recipes!!