Other Foods


Black Bread

"The great merchant galleys of Port Kar, and Cos, and Tyros, and other maritime powers, utilized thousands of such miserable wretches, fed on brews of peas and black bread, chained in the rowing holds, under the whips of slave masters, their lives measured by feedings and beatings, and the labor of the oar." Hunters of Gor (pg 13)

This is a heavy, dark bread baked from Gorean grains. Serve with clotted cream or honey.


Bread (Sa-Tarna Bread)

"He removed my hand from the binding fiber. I reached out for him. He thrust a huge piece of the yellow Sa-Tarna bread into my hands." Captive of Gor (pg 113)

I thought of the yellow Gorean bread, baked in the shape of round, flat loaves, fresh and hot; my mouth watered for a tabuk steak or, perhaps, if I were lucky, a slice of roast tarsk, the formidable six tusked wild boar of Gor's temperate forests. Outlaw of Gor (pg 76)

Then, while the other fellow took his place on the wagon box and started the ponderous draft beast into motion, he gave me two generous pieces of bread, two full wedges of Sa-Tarna bread, a fourth of a loaf. Such bread is usually baked in small, round loaves, with eight divisions in a loaf. Some smaller loaves are divided into four divisions. These division are a function, presumably, of their simplicity, the ease with which they may be made, the ease with which, even without explicit measurement, equalities may be produced. Kajira of Gor (pg 216)

Sa Tarna bread is not white bread like is commonly known on Earth. It is yellowish, along the lines of cornbread, but with more texture...more like the foccacia of Italy, or the flatbreads of the Middle East. This needs to be taken into consideration when serving, as it is challenging to make a "sandwich" with these styles of bread. Usually, sa tarna will be served with something atop it, or cut or torn into large pieces for soaking up sauces or gravies. Also, it may be sliced horizontally through the round loaf, stuffed with fillings and cut into wedges. Also nice is the practice of topping the sa tarna with fruits, meats, vegetables and/or cheeses, melting them into a meal on bread, which is wonderful cold, and packed for traveling.


Butter

" Olga," he said, "there is butter to be churning in the churning shed." "Yes, my Jarl," said she, holding her skirt up, running from the place of our exercises." Marauders of Gor (pg 101)

"We stopped by the churning shed, where Olga, sweating, had finished making a keg of butter." Marauders of Gor (pg 101)

"I saw small fruit trees, and hives, where honey bees were raised; and there were small sheds, here and there, with sloping roofs of boards; in some such sheds might craftsmen work, in others fish might be dried or butter made." Marauders of Gor (pg 81)

Butter is most often mentioned in the writings of the Torvoldslanders. The cold climate was suitable both to the need for high-fat foods, and for the ability to preserve something like butter, which is unstable at higher temperatures. It is likely that it was prepared from verr milk, as bosk was only infrequently kept in the northern climes, since there is very little for it to graze on, and verr, being much like earth goats, are also much less selective in their fodder needs. It is concievable that butter, or something like it, similar to the ghee of Earth, might be made from the riding beasts of the desert as well, and from bosk in the south. Ghee, being clarified and the proteins being removed, would be able to be kept well at the higher temperatures in these environments, and would also serve well for the styles of cooking common to the Plains and the Deserts. Butter from whichever source, may be used for cooking or baking, and may also be used plain, or combined with various herbs and spices to be brushed on roasting meats, pastries, breads, or stirred into grain cereals, rence, or melted over various root vegetables.


Candy

"He yelled something raucous and ribald. It had to do with "tastas" or "stick candies." These are not candies, incidentally, like sticks, as for example, licorice or peppermint sticks, but soft, rounded, succulent candies, usually covered with a coating of syrup or fudge, rather in the nature of the caramel apple, but much smaller, and, like a caramel apple, mounted on sticks. the candy is prepared and the stick, from the bottom, is thrust up, deeply, into it. It is then ready to be eaten." ... "These candies are usually sold at such places as parks, beaches, and promenades, at carnivals, expositions and fairs, and at various types of popular events, such as plays, song dramas, races, games, and kaissa matches. They are popular even with children." ... "The expression was sometimes used by men for women such as we." Dancer of Gor (pg 81)

Cheese

"In the cafes I had feasted well. I had had verr meat, cut in chunks and threaded on a metal rod, with slices of peppers and larma, and roasted; vulo stew with raisins, nuts, onions and honey; a kort with melted cheese and nutmeg; hot Bazi tea, sugared and later, Turian wine." Tribesmen of Gor (pg 48)

"The Tarn Keeper...brought the food, bosk steak and yellow bread, peas and Torian olives, and two golden-brown, starchy Suls, broken open and filled with melted bosk cheese." Assassin of Gor (pg 168)

Unlike butter, which requires somewhat stable conditions to maintain it, cheese can be made in almost any climate, and appears regularly in the books. Like wines, cheeses come in many varieties, and can be made from any milk-producing creature. The most common cheeses would be bosk or verr cheese, as the bosk provide a great deal of milk for culturing, and the verr are widespread on Gor, existing in the largest variety of climates. Cheeses may range from soft, spreadable cheeses, sometimes with some of the whey remaining (like cottage cheese), to very hard cheeses, suitable for grating over grain or vegetable dishes, and usually extremely salty and hard. In between are a wide variety of options for herbed, mild, and sharp cheeses. Try tasting a variety of cheeses to better assist you in describing the wide variety of options available, and to help you in knowing which types of cheeses would be best served with different foods.


Eggs

"Soon, I smelled the frying of vulo eggs in a large, flat pan" Slave Girl of Gor (pg 73)

"Eta piled several of the hot, tiny eggs, earlier kept fresh in cool sand within the cave, on a plate, with heated yellow bread, for him." Slave Girl of Gor (pg 73)

Eggs on Gor are predominantly from the vulo, and are most likely a bit smaller than the eggs of chickens of Earth. 5-6 are probably a 'serving', though the books are a bit inconsistent about both the size of vulos and the size of the eggs, as you will note from the quotes above. It is also possible, in fact, likely, that eggs from sources other than vulo were used. Fry, boil, use in cooking, baking, for custards, vegetable pies, pickled, etc.


Honey

"I saw small fruit trees, and hives, where honey bees were raised; and there were small sheds, here and there, with sloping roofs of boards; in some such sheds might craftsmen work, in others fish might be dried or butter made." Marauders of Gor (pg 81)

"In the cafes I had feasted well. I had had verr meat, cut in chunks and threaded on a metal rod, with slices of peppers and larma, and roasted; vulo stew with raisins, nuts, onions and honey; a kort with melted cheese and nutmeg; hot Bazi tea, sugared and later, Turian wine." Tribesmen of Gor (pg 48)

Mint Sticks

"She withdrew, head down. She picked up the small tray from the stand near the table. On it was a small vessel containing a thick, sweet liqueur from the distant Turia, the Ar of the South, and the two tiny glasses from which we had sipped it. On the tray too, was the metal vessel which contained black wine, steaming and bitter from far Thentis, famed for its tarn flocks, the small yellow-enamled cups from which we had drunk the black wine, its spoons and sugars, a tiny bowl of mint sticks, and the softened, dampened cloths on which we had wiped our fingers." Explorers of Gor (pg 10)

Mul Fungus

"It is not hard to get used to the mul-fungus, for it has almost no taste, being and extremely bland, pale, whitish, vegetable like matter." Priest Kings of Gor (pg 109)

As this is only prepared in the domicile of the Priest Kings, to the muls, the likelihood of it showing up on a table in Torvoldsland is nill.


Nuts

"vulo stew with raisins, nuts, onions, and honey." Tribesmen of Gor (pg 48)

Nuts go good in everything from cookies to bread to stuffing. They are nice for snacking, and can be roasted with honey and butter. Add them to fruit trays or fruit salads.


Olives

"The Tarn Keeper...brought the food, bosk steak and yellow bread, peas and Torian olives, and two golden-brown, starchy Suls, broken open and filled with melted bosk cheese." Assassin of Gor (pg 168)

"Clitus, too, had brought two bottles of Ka-la-na wine, a string of eels, cheese of the Verr and a sack of red olives from the groves of Tyros." Raiders of Gor (pg 114)

Olives go well served with verr, cheese, or as a salty accompaniment to bread and cheese trays. Note the two varieties within the quotes.


Pastries

"On the tray were assorted pastries, on the other was a variety of small, spiced custards." Guardsmen of Gor (pg 239)

"I shop for wealthy women," said she, "for pastries and tarts and cakes things they will not trust their female slaves to buy." Nomads of Gor (pg 238)

Pastries can be made or filled with just about anything. Try nuts, fruits, cheese spreads, or a combination of them when baking these tasty treats. Imagination is everything.


Rence

"In the morning, before dawn, she had placed in my mouth a handful of rence paste." Raiders of Gor (pg 28)

"I had carried about bowls of cut, fried fish, and wooden trays of roated tarsk meat, and roasted gants, threaded on sticks, and rence cakes and porridges, and gourd flagons, many times replenished, of rence beer." Raiders of Gor (pg 44)

Rence is a water plant, used in a manner similar to rice for food. The fibers of the outer stem are used for paper, and the mash is fermented to make beer. The grain may be boiled or ground into a paste then sweetened to make a type of pancake.


Salt

"salt, incidentally, is obtained by the men of Torvaldsland, most commonly, from sea water or the burning of seaweed. It is also, however, a trade commodity, and is sometimes taken in raids. the red and yellow salts of the south, some of which I saw on the tables, are not domestic to Torvaldsland" Marauders of Gor (pgs 186-187)

This says about all there is to say about salt in Torvoldsland. NO colored salts...just plain ol' white sea salt.


Sa-Tarna

"Economically, the base of the Gorean life was the free peasant, which was perhaps the lowest but undoubtedly the most fundamental caste, and the staple crop was a yellow grain called Sa-Tarna, or Life-Daughter." Tarnsman of Gor (pg 43)

"A great amount of farming, or perhaps one should speak of gardening, is done at the oasis, but little of this is exported. At the oasis, will be grown a hybrid, brownish Sa-Tarna, adapted to the heat of the desert; most Sa-Tarna is yellow..." Tribesmen of Gor (pg 37)

Sa-tarna is the Gorean equivalent of wheat. It is used to make bread, and distilled for paga. Flour for breads, pies, cakes, cookies, etc. are most likely sa-tarna flour.


Slave Porridge or Bond-maid Gurel

"Durbar left. In a few moments he returned with a small wooden bowl filled with dried, precooked meal. He poured some water into this. I was then handed the bowl. "Mix it with your fingers," said the first man. I, mixing the water with the precooked meal, formed a sort of cold porridge or gruel. I then, with my fingers, and putting the bowl even to my lips, fell eagerly upon that thick, bland moist substance." Kajira of Gor (pg 257)

"The bond-maids did not much care for their gruel, unsweetened, mud-like Sa-Tarna meal; with raw fish." Marauders of Gor (pg 65)

"We had been called from our cells well before dawn. Each of us had been forced to eat a large bowl of heavy slave gruel. We wouldn’t be fed again until that night." Captive of Gor (pg 208)

This gruel is made of sa-tarna paste and water. In Torvoldsland, raw chunks of parsit fish may be added. Vegetables and bits of meat might be added as well, but only the fish is used to fortify this food in Kassau. If you have ever had Chinese Porridge, you'll know what this tastes like.


Spices

"..a kort with melted cheese and nutmeg." Tribesmen of Gor (pg 48)

"Some of the peppers and spices, relished even by the children of the Tahari districts, were sufficient to convince an average good fellow of Thentis or Ar that the roof of the mouth and his tongue were being torn out of his head." Tribesmen of Gor (pg 46)

Chances are that most herbs, spices, and flavorings are available for use in the typical Torvaldsland kitchen, with an emphasis on the sweeter spices, like cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice.


Sugar

"With a tiny spoon, its tip no more than a tenth of a hort in diameter, she placed four measures of white sugar, and six of yellow in the cup" Tribesmen of Gor (pg 89)

White and yellow sugars are both mentioned on Gor. This is likely to be fructose and unrefined cane juice. Both of these are VERY sweet, and measurements should be adjusted accordingly when baking.


Sullage

"First she boiled and simmered a kettle of Sullage, a common Gorean soup consisting of three standard ingredients, and, as it is said, whatever else may be found, saving only the rocks of the field. The principal ingredients of Sullage are the golden Sul, the curled, red, ovate leaves of the Tur-Pah, a tree parasite, and the salty, blue secondary roots of the Kes shrub" Priest Kingsof Gor (pg 45)

This is a common soup, sort of like a potato-mushroom soup. Filling and bland, it can be dressed up with cheeses, served with bread and butter, or with fruit.