Etrandish cuisine

The cuisine of the Kingdom of Etrand is arguably one of the most diverse on the continent of Artograch, and has been subject to foreign influences, mainly from Froturn and Dragoc.

Meat
Despite being rather expensive (to the point where the average peasant can only afford to eat meat twice per week), meat forms a central part in Etrandish high cuisine, and every self-respecting cook will include it in their non-sweet dishes: beef, veal, pork, mutton, and venison are all popular in Etrand. Dictated by the religious laws of Titanism, the meat of cats, dogs, horses and all sentient creatures (Humans, Elves, Orcs, Lizardmen, Dwarves, Halfling, Dragons) are forbidden.

Unsmoked meat is usually roasted or cooked and served hot. Smoked meat - such as smoked bacon - is usually served cold, although dry-fried bacon (due to the influence of Froturnish cuisine on Etrandish) is also widely eaten, especially combined with pasta. A unique meat dish in Etrand is the brawn or "pig cheese" which was consumed only in Etrand before Artaburro came into existence. Sausages are also eaten in Etrand - they distinguish between two types of sausages: the cooked and smoked dry sausages that are usually made out of a combination of pork, pig fat, garlic, pepper, and caraway, smoke-cooked and consumed as a cold cut; and the boiled blood sausages that are made from a farm animal's (usually pig's) intestines, blood fat, and some kind of grain or grain-like consistency as filling (rice, oatmeal, buckwheat, or even regular barley), and are eaten warm. The meat of birds is usually either cooked into soups or eaten fried in butter, fat or beeswax. While nobles and peasants alike can eat a diverse array of meat products, city-folk are generally restricted to bland dried and salted bacon, occasionally pork sausage, which are the two cheapest forms of meat in the kingdom.

Fish is the staple food of coastal populations, such as the residents of Copperport. Various edible clams are also consumed, for example geoduck was King Cairbré's favourite. In Copperport, they also eat fish sausages.

Overall, the favourite type of meat depends on the region: in Southern Etrand, pigs and sheep are preferred. In Inner-Etrand and Western Etrand, cattle are favoured. In the colder Northern Etrand, goats are the favourites.

Dairy and other animal products
Dairy products are almost considered staple food for the peasantry and nobility alike, but a rare luxury for city-folk.

The most widely consumed dairy product in Etrand is cheese. Sour cream and cottage cheese are also consumed, but less widely than in Froturn. There is a certain type of cheese unique to Etrand, which is made by making heavy goat cheese, then allowing flies to lay eggs on it, letting fly maggots hatch and ferment the cheese, making it soft and taste "spicy" - due to sanitary concerns, the maggots are usually killed by magically freezing them before the cheese is served.

Eggs are also widely consumed in Etrand, more so than in other countries. For the nobility of Etrand, the standard morning meal includes fried eggs, fried bacon and a random type of fruit. For the peasantry, an alternate type of egg is consumed: preserved eggs, made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in a mixture of clay, ash, salt, quicklime, and wheat hay for several months.

Cereal products
Wheat, barley, rye, millet, maize and rice are all cultivated in Etrand, though rice has only been widely cultivated since the reign of King Bryant I of Etrand. To simply put it, cereal is the main staple of the Etrandish subject's diet. All of the above mentioned plants' grains are pulverized into a fine powdery substance known as flour, which is then mixed with water, salt, and optionally other ingredients (like sugar, yeast, eggs, etc.) to produce dough, which is then baked into either bread or hardtack. Bread is the staple-food of nobles and peasants alike, while hardtack is the food of city-folks, soldiers and sailors.

Vegetables
Out of all the countries in Artograch, vegetables have most of their prominence most likely in Etrand. Potatoes are widely consumed as a cheap and widely available alternate to bread. Cabbage, spinach, sorrel, turnips, radish, carrots, beetroots, beans, peas, onions, garlic and leeks all play part in Etrandish cuisine one way or another, consumed either raw or as part of various dishes, mainly soups or meat dishes.

Fruits
While not considered fruits by ordinary folks - as they are culinary vegatables - tomatoes and pepper are still botanically fruits, and they are both widely employed in Etrandish cuisine. Chili pepper is most widely used in Southern Etrand, where pretty much every non-sweet dish contains it one way or another.

Culinary fruits such as apples, pears, peaches, cherries and berries are also consumed, but their role is much more limited in Etrandish cuisine than in other countries' cuisine - fruits are usually eaten raw or used as flavouring agents in pastries and sweet dishes, but since the number of sweet dishes is limited, their prominence is limited. Additionally, the Etrandish people have a taboo against mixing sweet and non-sweet, sharply contrasting with the people of Froturn who casually add strawberry jam to meat.

Hemp products and Cannabis edibles
Hemp is both ubiquitous and versatile. Hemp is cultivated throughout just about all of Etrand, save for the cold north. It serves as the base material for clothing and paper alike. However, that is not its only use - hemp is used to produce a poor man's version of milk and tea (hemp milk and hemp tea), its seeds can be grinded into flour made into bread, but most infamously, it can be used to produce a psychoactive drug that is widely consumed all accross Etrand, either directly (by smoking it), or indirectly, by eating food infused with it. So-called "hash tea" (Cannabis tea) also serves as a cheaper alternative to, or rather, as a poor man's version of regular tea, which is still considered an exotic foreign beverage consumed almost exclusively by the upper echelons of Etrandish society.

Alcoholic beverages
Traditionally, the main alcoholic beverages of Etrand were beer and mead. The earlier was adopted from the Dwarves of the North, while the latter was inspired by Wood Elven ciders.

Ever since the Kingdom of Etrand has been founded, wine made an appearance in Etrand, but consumption was always limited to the nobility and clergy. Only during the reign of King Cairbré I of Etrand would wine-drinking spread to the middle class - Cairbré is also wrongfully credited with inventing or popularizing mulled wine, even though it has been gradually becoming more and more popular ever since the late 7th century AEKE.

Even though Etrand annexed Hulra in the late 3th century AEKE, usquebaugh would not be popularized in Etrand until the early 8th century, when King Bryant I of Etrand popularized the beverage.

Non-alcoholic beverages
In Etrand, milk was always more widely consumed than in other countries. Throughout the centuries, the people of Etrand have made a whole art form out of the various magical and non-magical methods of preserving drinkable cow milk. Additionally, tea got introduced from Dragoc several centuries ago - however, it is still considered an exotic beverage, thus its consumption is largerly limited to the upper strata of society. A cheaper alternative is Cannabis tea, colloquially known as "hash tea" (ironically, its consumption dates back to times that precede the introduction of proper tea to Etrand - in fact, so-called "hash tea" might even be older tha normal tea as a whole).

Another prominent non-alcoholic beverage is acorn coffee. Similiar types of "coffee" are also made out of wheat, barley or oat.

Nevertheless, the role non-alcoholic beverages remains low - as water is not always suitable to drink, milk is not readily available to urban citizens and exotic drinks like Wood Elven teas are drank mainly by the upper class - even children drink beer, although "lighter" types with lower alcohol content. Rural children often drink acorn coffee instead.