Is there any other chapter in The Lord of the Rings that is as much about food
as this one?
Hobbits and Food
A. Why does Tolkien make his hobbits “a merry race of boring gluttons”?
Real food v. lembas
Lembas, by Nasmith, Howe, New Line Films
“ . . . he had begun to long for a
good homely meal, ‘something hot out of the pot’ . . . . ‘you don’t like our
food, and I’d not be sorry for a change myself’.” – Sam, ‘Of Herbs and Stewed
Rabbit’.
“Treebeard's draughts may be nourishing, but one feels the need of something
solid. And even lembas is none the worse for a change.” – Merry,
‘Flotsam and Jetsam’, Chap. 9, Book III, The Two Towers.
Hobbits agree: lembas is not enough! But:
The lembas had a virtue
without which they would long ago have lain down to die. It did not satisfy
desire, and at times Sam's mind was filled with the memories of food, and the
longing for simple bread and meats. And yet this waybread of the Elves had a
potency that increased as travellers relied on it alone and did not mingle it
with other foods. – ‘Mount Doom’, Chap. 3, Book VI, The Return of the
King.
B. Is it his hobbit-nature, or the circumstances of the detour through
Ithilien, or perhaps some other factor, that makes Sam reject the lembas in
this chapter?
C. Can you imagine what lembas tastes like? Can you imagine getting sick of
it?
What Gollum eats
` Sméagol
doesn't like smelly leaves. He doesn't eat grasses or roots, no precious, not
till he's starving or very sick, poor Sméagol. '
D. No veggies, no carbs. What does Gollum live on? Can he physically survive
on such a diet? Knowing what we do about what he will eat, did you imagine
there was anything he wouldn’t eat?
Cooking coney
Sam was a good cook, even by hobbit
reckoning, and he had done a good deal of the camp-cooking on their travels,
when there was a chance.
E. What “camp-cooking” has there been during the entire adventure, prior to
this scene?
He still hopefully carried some of
his gear in his pack: a small tinder-box, two small shallow pans, the smaller
fitting into the larger; inside them a wooden spoon, a short two-pronged fork
and some skewers were stowed; and hidden at the bottom of the pack in a flat
wooden box a dwindling treasure, some salt. But he needed a fire, and other
things besides. He thought for a bit, while he took out his knife,
cleaned and whetted it, and began to dress the rabbits.
beautiful meat… young, tender, nice
F. Ever dressed a rabbit? Simple directions here
(not for the tender of stomach, by the way). Why did Tolkien skip over this
part, hm? Gollum wouldn’t have.
`What a hobbit needs with coney,'
he said to himself, `is some herbs and roots, especially taters - not to
mention bread. Herbs we can manage, seemingly.'…‘A few bay-leaves, some thyme
and sage, will do - before the water boils,’' said Sam.
In the end he had to find what he wanted for himself; … For a while Sam sat
musing, and tending the fire till the water boiled. …. Soon the rabbits cut up
lay simmering in their pans with the bunched herbs. Almost Sam fell asleep as
the time went by. He let them stew for close on an hour, testing them now and
again with his fork, and tasting the broth.
G. Would this work? Has anything been left out of the recipe? Isn’t the
musing part fun? Herbs, shmerbs: How would those coneys have tasted without
salt, which Sam miraculously happens to have?
Recipes
Added due to popular demand. OK, folks bring out the recipes you like –
but please limit yourselves to rabbit stews that you yourself have
cooked, so you can tell us how they taste. Do consider also posting them for
Fiesta on Main if you think they have promise.
For some reason, no cookbook or site had “Stewed Coney served by S. Gamgee”,
but here is one that could possibly be modified to match Sam’s field cooking,
simply by eliminating ¾ of the ingredients and 2 of the 4 steps:
Wild Rabbit stew with root vegetables
Ingredients (Serves 4):
2 wild rabbits
2 onions
3 carrots
3 parsnips
2 turnips
200gms of mixed wild mushrooms
4 roosters potatoes
100gms smoked bacon
1 small tin of chopped tomatoes
1 small tin of tomato puree
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 sprigs of thyme
2 sprigs of sage
4 cloves of garlic
100mls of red wine
Salt and pepper
1. Debone rabbit and portion. Put bones in oven and roast. In a pot put onion
trimmings, herbs, tomato puree and roasted bones. Top up with water and simmer
for as long as possible. Sieve and put aside.
2. Peel all vegetables and cut into appropriate seizes and put to one side Trim
up bacon and clean the mushrooms.
3. In large pot sauté off the diced onions, trimmed bacon, all the herbs and
the garlic. Add the tomato puree and tin of tomatoes. Add bottle of red wine.
Add rabbit stock and bring up to simmer.
4. On a hot pan seal the seasoned rabbit portions and add to pot. Simmer for
about 30mins. Add all vegetables and potatoes and simmer for a further 40 mins
and serve with a good fresh ciabatta or other rustic bread.
From Jon
Kenny's Menu
H. Would this recipe work with only Sam’s ingredients: rabbit, bay-leaf,
thyme, sage, water, salt?
I. How important is it to sear the meat before boiling it in a stew? Does Sam
do that step?
Rabbit stew
Sam and his master sat just within
the fern-brake and ate their stew from the pans, sharing the old fork and
spoon. They allowed themselves half a piece of the Elvish waybread each. It
seemed a feast.
'Wheew! Gollum!' Sam called and whistled softly. 'Come on!
Still time to change your mind. There's some left, if you want to try stewed
coney.' There was no answer.
`Oh well, I suppose he's gone off to find something for
himself. We'll finish it,' said Sam.
`And then you must take some sleep,' said Frodo.
J. Why does Sam even think of sharing the remaining stew with Gollum at this
point? Why doesn’t Frodo make the offer?
Campfires.
Sam gathered a
pile of the driest fern, and then scrambled up the bank collecting a bundle of
twigs and broken wood; the fallen branch of a cedar at the top gave him a good
supply. He cut out some turves at the foot of the bank just outside the
fern-brake, and made a shallow hole and laid his fuel in it. Being handy with
flint and tinder he soon had a small blaze going. It made little or no smoke
but gave off an aromatic scent. He was just stooping over his fire, shielding
it and building it up with heavier wood, when Gollum returned, carrying the
pans carefully and grumbling to himself.
K. Why does Tolkien spend this much time describing the building of a fire?
And why no mention of Mr. Frodo’s hatchet, as what seemed no use against the
old Willow?
Potatoes as anachronism.
‘I’d make him look for turnips and
carrots, and taters too, if it was the time o’ the year. I’ll bet there's all
sorts of good things running wild in this country. I'd give a lot for half a
dozen taters.’
‘ . . . What's taters, precious, eh, what's
taters?’
‘Po-ta-toes,’ said Sam. ‘The Gaffer’s delight, and rare
good ballast for an empty belly. But you won't find any, so you needn't look.
But be good Sméagol and fetch me the herbs, and I'll think better of you.
What's more, if you turn over a new leaf, and keep it turned, I’ll cook you
some taters one of these days. I will: fried fish and chips served by S.
Gamgee.’
Potatoes were introduced to Europe from South America after 1500. By any
measure, and like the Shire’s tobacco (later renamed “pipeweed”), they are a
virtual anachronism in Tolkien’s imagined ancient pre-Columbian Europe known as
Middle-earth. ‘Fish and chips’ likewise casts us forward into modern times; as
does the phrase ‘served by S. Gamgee’.
L. Or do they? Is this a hot potato, or a red herring? How do you feel about
Sam’s and the Gaffer’s explicit knowledge of “Taters”?
It just wouldn’t be right at this point to exclude this.
Text of this
chapter
Everyone is laughing for heart's ease, now that they're in Ithilien! Join me in the Reading Room this week for a squireific topic-oriented discussion of Chapter 4, Book IV of The Two Towers: "Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit".
squire online:
Footerama: "Tolkien would have LOVED it!" (improved!)
The Valaquenta discussion
A Shortcut to Mushrooms discussion
