Revisiting Rations, Part 6: Hobbit

Revisiting Rations, Part 6:  Hobbit

 

Okay, so I had to play around with images to make things work today.  Bear with me.

It's that time!  Time for another rations post.  This time, I have focused on what a Hobbit might take along the road for a couple days.  Please note, a Hobbit is not a Halfling, no matter what Tolkien might say.  Halflings are more slender, fey, and "wild" compared to the pastoral Hobbits.  But here, we have a good example of a delicious meal that will last several days and includes many things Hobbits are overly fond of.

The ration consists of a sausage wellington roll (that's what I'm calling it), blackberry scone with clotted cream, truffled cheddar cheese, an apple, and blackberry cordial.  Seeing as how Hobbits, described by Tolkien, are incredibly fond of mushrooms and seem to enjoy blackberries, I figure this works well.

Sausage Wellington Roll

This is my take on the traditional sausage roll.  I made a sausage from half pork loin, half bacon, hand-minced, then seasoned with Prague Powder, salt, white and black pepper, nutmeg, mace, and allspice.  This was then stuffed into a casing and smoked for several hours over apple wood.  The resulting sausage was added to a roll along with some mushrooms and shallots.  This provides a portable meal that's savory and really quite good.

And now, for the money shot...

See all that duxelles?  True, I didn't add any pate or parma ham or the like, but I wanted to keep this somewhat simple.  While Hobbits love flavor, their meals (as taken from the Hobbit) don't tend to stand on a lot of fancy preparation.

Blackberry Scone (with Clotted Cream)

It's kind of rare when I'm making one of these rations to come across something that makes me go "You know what?  I'll have another.  And another."  This scone recipe was one of those things.  It's s simple scone dough with the addition of some fresh blackberries, then split and filled with homemade clotted cream.  You could add some jam as well, if you wanted.

Truffled Cheddar Cheese

This is something I'm really quite proud of.  It came out amazingly, although it's super-rich.  I made a standard cheddar cheese, then added a small amount of truffle oil and a goodly portion of dried cremini mushrooms.  The entire cheese smells of mushrooms and tastes wonderfully, but man, it's rich.  I said that already.  This process took about three months and involved me waxing the cheese.  Believe it or not, it's actually really easy to make.

Side note:  you're not getting a pic or statement on the apple.  It's an apple.  It was yummy.

Blackberry Cordial

Just a small portion because this is both strong and sweet.  Equal portions of vodka and sugar are dissolved and then I added a bunch of fresh blackberries and stored for a month or two.  It's...  Not my thing, really.  Too sweet.  Seems like a hangover in a mason jar, honestly, but I'm sure quite a few people will love it!

How Long Will it Last?

Here we only have two components to worry about.  The cheese, being less salted and far more moist than others, will go bad within a few days (particularly because of all the spores in it--eat quickly) and clotted cream needs to be kept sealed and cool to avoid spoiling.  If you can manage those (perhaps don't unwax the cheese before time to eat and keep the cream in a mason jar), you're good to go over a weekend event.