You may not get quite the same impression from the HBO Series but the Song of Ice and Fire books are filled with descriptions of foods and feasts. Lamprey Pie and Roast Aurrochs and Onion Soup. Tons of food, Mr. Martin definitely has a spot in his heart for medieval food. Alan Kistler of the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast realized this and wrote a great cookbook based on the show. I was excited to dig into one of the meals but I ran into a wall, my kitchen is too damn small for any serious cooking. The description of Sansa’s Buttermilk Biscuits sounded amazing but I didn’t have room to roll out the dough, and my oven has some bad hotspots. I resigned to making simple things. A Westerosian Fried Breakfast and Lannister Beef With Horseradish.

The breakfast is easy although I cut out the sausage, I don’t need 2 pork products in my already unhealthy breakfast. I fried up the bacon, then the eggs and nice thick Sourdough bread in the bacon grease. Really not so different than my usually weekend breakfast, just much greasier. I’ve never fried bread in bacon grease but damn it was tasty, I might have to do this while camping when I need a hearty meal. There were a few other solid breakfasts, cream of wheat and boiled eggs, but fried eggs are my thing. A bit of black coffee and I was feeling great.

Dinner was much more involved. The recipe in the book was much larger than we needed and had the ability to cook so it was cut in half. Lannister Beef with Horseradish is basically just Rump Roast and veggies in a slow cooker but it turned out pretty great. Because we had to adjust the recipe the meat got a bit overcooked but the gravy made from the drippings helped out with that. I was a little worried about the horseradish but I couldn’t really taste it at all and we didn’t cut the amount of that at all. I’d double it for next time. All the vegetables turned out great and I tried a Rutabaga for the first time. 

The book is filled with mouthwatering recipes and I wish I had a kitchen that could handle some of them. There are a few recipes for ribs that I would jump on if I had room for a grill or would modify for a smoker. If you are feeling adventurous and have the resources there are also recipes for venison, aurrochs, pickled pigs feet, snails, locusts, and elk.

Kistler also included a desserts and drinks section with lots of beer recipes I would love to brew. I may have to talk Arse-bot into trying Direwolf Ale. There are a few cocktails but none of them sounded appetizing to me, interesting looking but not my kind of drink. If I had any creme de menthe around I would go for the Pyromancers’ Wildfire, Grand Marnier, gold tequila and creme de menthe layered and ignited.

If you want to get your hands on a copy it’s available from Amazon
The Unofficial Game of Thrones Cookbook: From Direwolf Ale to Auroch Stew – More Than 150 Recipes from Westeros and Beyond