The Sword and Laser discussion

So... what are we nomming feasting on this month? Any foods or drinks you enjoy while readying The Shadows of the Gods?

I think I will try some warm mead! I had ordered previously a bottle of "Viking Blood" (Mead with Cherry) and "Sanguis Daemonis" (Mead with black food coloring) and I think I will open them for this book - they seem quite appropriate...

But what are you feasting, fellow Bloodsworn?

Oh so many choices. My grandparents used to get pickled herring sent over from Finland every Christmas. Pieces of fish in brine, in a small plastic barrel. They ate it on rye crackers. And no, I couldn't stand it.

One could always eat Salmiak which is a kind of salted licorice. This will clear the sinuses in your thought-cage.


For drinking, there is Aquavit. Think of it as Scandinavian gin with a different herbal flavour profile; less juniper and more steering toward dill. Death & Co has a cocktail called the Great Northern (sorry, no AI recipes allowed):
2 ounces Linie Aquavit
3/4 ounce Lillet Blanc
1/2 ounce Cointreau
3/4 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce Acacia Honey Syrup

Short shake all ingredients with 3 ice cubes, then strain into a double rocks glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with 2 orange crescents.

Sit down at your mead bench and fill your drink horn. Mutton is like lamb, right?

"The hall began to fill, men and women entering, all setting their shields and spears around the halls’ outskirts and taking their places on the mead benches as thralls were filling the long tables with food and drink: bowls of creamy skyr yoghurt and curds, pots of honey. Boards were full of dried and smoked sliced mutton, trenchers of rabbit and beef, slabs of whale meat and barrels of horsemeat floating in whey. Fresh-baked bread, still hot from the ovens. Dried cod, pungent and salty. Herring fermented in brine, blood pudding, cauldrons of stew glistening with fat and bobbing with carrots, parsnips and onion, and horns of warm mead spiced with juniper to wash it all down. Varg had never seen so much food and drink in all his life, the scents almost overwhelming. His stomach growled like a bear waking in his cave."

Gwynne, John. The Shadow of the Gods (The Bloodsworn Trilogy Book 1) (p. 115). Orbit.

Tamahome wrote: "Sit down at your mead bench and fill your drink horn. Mutton is like lamb, right?

"The hall began to fill, men and women entering, all setting their shields and spears around the halls’ outskirts ..."

Lamb= meat from a sheep less than 1 year old
Hogget= meat from a sheep 1-2 years old
Mutton= meat from a sheep 2 years+

Mutton has a stronger flavour than lamb and isn’t as tender. It’s delicious in stews and curries - basically, anything slow-cooked. Fun fact: mutton is the favourite meal of King Charles.

I've never heard of hogget. I'd like to throw some down my hunger-tunnel.

Tamahome wrote: "I've never heard of hogget. I'd like to throw some down my hunger tunnel."

Hunger tunnel 🤣 thanks I needed a laugh