So Jeremy, when I first read this, lemon cheesecake seemed anachronistic. I have researched and have been surprised by the age of that dish (1700s), but I am still curious to know if you have any overarching principles you are following regarding references to food - perhaps tacos and hot dogs are going to be referenced soon? :)
That's the wonderful thing about writing high fantasy—I can have technological or culinary developments follow a different timeline than on Earth (as long as it doesn't strain believability). So if I want advanced airship technology before minted coins, I can do that!
Though in the case of cheesecake, according to Wikipedia, there is precedent for a pre-modern cheesecake-like dish:
"An ancient form of cheesecake may have been a popular dish in ancient Greece even prior to Romans' adoption of it with the conquest of Greece. The earliest attested mention of a cheesecake is by the Greek physician Aegimus (5th century BCE), who wrote a book on the art of making cheesecakes (πλακουντοποιικόν σύγγραμμα—plakountopoiikon sungramma). The earliest extant cheesecake recipes are found in Cato the Elder's De Agri Cultura, which includes recipes for three cakes for religious uses: libum, savillum and placenta. Of the three, placenta cake is the most like modern cheesecakes: having a crust that is separately prepared and baked."
Who cares about belt buckles and a giant talking penguin, I would like to know more about the seventeen buckets of lard! My grandma kept a large tub of lard on her stove, and she was the most amazing cook!
Let's just say it involved a very messy apprenticeship at the Imperial Butchery, a dare, a mess of spectacular proportions, and a heart-pumping chase through the streets of Imperium with half the city guard on my tail.
(That's about 2/7ths of the story, but you begin to get the idea.)
Terrible things, questions. They ruin my appetite . . . until I read this chapter, and then I crave shepard's pie and lemon cheesecake! (Yum! I could eat like a horse.)
Who actually likes shepherd’s pie?! It is the worst food ever! I once had the choice of eating shepherd's pie or starving for several days. . . . But no hunger pangs could make me sample that disgusting dish. It looks like floating islands of potatoes in red volcanic debris! That recipe alone would have justified making the cook walk the plank!
So Jeremy, when I first read this, lemon cheesecake seemed anachronistic. I have researched and have been surprised by the age of that dish (1700s), but I am still curious to know if you have any overarching principles you are following regarding references to food - perhaps tacos and hot dogs are going to be referenced soon? :)
That's the wonderful thing about writing high fantasy—I can have technological or culinary developments follow a different timeline than on Earth (as long as it doesn't strain believability). So if I want advanced airship technology before minted coins, I can do that!
Though in the case of cheesecake, according to Wikipedia, there is precedent for a pre-modern cheesecake-like dish:
"An ancient form of cheesecake may have been a popular dish in ancient Greece even prior to Romans' adoption of it with the conquest of Greece. The earliest attested mention of a cheesecake is by the Greek physician Aegimus (5th century BCE), who wrote a book on the art of making cheesecakes (πλακουντοποιικόν σύγγραμμα—plakountopoiikon sungramma). The earliest extant cheesecake recipes are found in Cato the Elder's De Agri Cultura, which includes recipes for three cakes for religious uses: libum, savillum and placenta. Of the three, placenta cake is the most like modern cheesecakes: having a crust that is separately prepared and baked."
As for the tacos . . . we'll taco 'bout it.
Who cares about belt buckles and a giant talking penguin, I would like to know more about the seventeen buckets of lard! My grandma kept a large tub of lard on her stove, and she was the most amazing cook!
Let's just say it involved a very messy apprenticeship at the Imperial Butchery, a dare, a mess of spectacular proportions, and a heart-pumping chase through the streets of Imperium with half the city guard on my tail.
(That's about 2/7ths of the story, but you begin to get the idea.)
Terrible things, questions. They ruin my appetite . . . until I read this chapter, and then I crave shepard's pie and lemon cheesecake! (Yum! I could eat like a horse.)
Who actually likes shepherd’s pie?! It is the worst food ever! I once had the choice of eating shepherd's pie or starving for several days. . . . But no hunger pangs could make me sample that disgusting dish. It looks like floating islands of potatoes in red volcanic debris! That recipe alone would have justified making the cook walk the plank!
Hence why I went into the trades, instead of becoming a shepherd.
Aquamancer's pie, I will have you know, is quite heavenly—especially when you get the ratios just right.