[Sca-cooks] Tokien geekiness

[Alex Clark]

At 09:10 PM 11/13/2003 -0800, Selene Colfox wrote:
>Lembas, the Elvish waybread, is supposed to be very sustaining but
>delicious.  Ingredients included nuts and honey but the recipe was a deep
>secret. . . .

Gollum: What iss it eating, my preciouss?
Sam: Nut'n' honey.

But seriously, as another old Tolkien geek, I don't remember any 
information about the ingredients. Is this something that I've forgotten? 
What I know (from "Farewell to Lorien") is that they were thin, crisp, and 
short, lightly browned on the outside with a creamy color inside, and 
yummy. They also seem to have had the following properties:
  - very high calorie density
  - fairly satisfying for the appetite (though not quite enough for a hobbit)
  - pretty well nutritionally balanced
  - unlikely to get rancid or moldy

This suggests that they should have contained a good deal of fat (for 
calorie density and short texture), and protein and fiber (both for 
nutritional balance and to satisfy the appetite), and very little moisture. 
So whether nuts were mentioned by Tolkien, they could likely have been 
included among the ingredients. High-protein whole grains are likely 
ingredients, while high-protein legumes might also have been included. They 
were probably not heavily sweetened, because sugar or honey would have 
contributed little more than empty calories.

If I were inventing a recipe for lembas, my first test would probably 
involve considerable amounts of whole oat flour and ground lentils, with 
some strong wheat flour and whole barley meal, hazelnut butter, butter, 
eggs, honey, and some mashed fruit, a bit of salt, and a little bit of 
Ceylon cinnamon. Sometime when I have some real spare time I'll have to try 
this. :-)

Alex Clark/Henry of Maldon