Revisiting Rations, Part 3: Dwarf

Revisiting Rations, Part 3:  Dwarf

Hey, it's time for another one of these.  This time, I've chosen to focus on Dwarven food, or at least what I consider to be Dwarven.

Please note:  all of these rations work wonderfully for Humans because, well, they're all Human food.  But still!

So, for this ration, I have chosen to go with a Cornish-style pasty, dilled cheddar cheese, leather britches, and beer (of course!).  Dwarves are miners, and Cornish pasties were typically consumed by miners, so that makes sense.  Plus, my Dwarves love cheese, and so it features heavily here.  Leather britches are dried, lightly smoked green beans (and seriously good).  But let's get into it.

"Cornish" Pasty

Here it is all opened up.  Rather than the traditional ingredients, I went with ham, mushrooms, sauerkraut, cheese, and mustard.  This provides a bit of a Germanic feel, which I find appropriate for Dwarves, and the ingredients will definitely last.  Plus, it's extremely energy-dense and portable, which is important for a "ration."

Dilled Cheddar Cheese

This was really surprisingly good.  I made a farmhouse cheddar and added a ton of dill, basically.  Salted and shelved, this cheese is almost non-perishable if kept dry.  And it's really stupidly yummy, but I love dill.  Plus, I like that I'm using some Scandinavian flavors in the mustard in the pasty and the dill here.

Leather Britches

These are surprisingly easy to make and seriously delicious.  Cut your green beans and string them up with needle and thread. Let them get some smoke and then hang them to dehydrate for, well, many, many weeks.  They take a seriously long time to cook, but even then they'll last several days, and the liquid you cook them in wounds up tasting like roast beef.  Cooked, this is the perishable part of the ration--everything else I would expect to keep for weeks.

Beer

I don't normally brew beer because I don't have an appropriately-sized vessle to use as a mash tun, so this is just a pint of Guinness in a two-pint mug.  I brew mead, wine, cider, and kvas on the regular, but I just don't want to do a syrup-based beer.  It doesn't feel right to me.  But Guinness is at least appropriately Dwarven, and you can substitute any high-gravity or dark beer here.  I didn't fill the mug all the way up because it was seriously early when I took these pics and I wasn't in the mood for several beers.  Deal with it.

How Long Will it Last?

Kept properly, I would expect this ration to be virtually bombproof.  I mean, eventually the crust on the pasty will mold, but if this is kept dry and the beans are uncooked, I would definitely expect this ration to last for a week.  The cooked beans don't have as much of a shelf life, but a day or two should be fine if they are kept cool and covered.

And one more shot, because I feel like it!