What's cooking?

[NuclearFairy]

Okay, so I was writing a cooking scene, and got called away in the middle of it, now what they're cooking isn't really important, it's more the how they react to the challenge and the stuff they talk about while doing so, and yet, I'm stuck on what they're cooking! Been stuck on it for two weeks. Very frustrating.

Anyways, not sure what better place to put this!

There are four hungry people to feed (One of which is a small impatient child), a small furnished kitchen with late medieval to early renascence technology, no fire in the stove, in an otherworld fantasy setting.

They have, plenty of apples, yogurt for two people, oats (not oatmeal, not oat flour, just oats), and jam.

Now the question is, what are they cooking? Or even just preparing? Cause I don't think I want them to take the time to fire up the stove.

 

[PennyThompson]

Might it depend on how actively you want them focused on the cooking, or if they're talking, flirting, touching each other, during?

Like, peeling potatoes or chopping carrots requires both hands but fairly little attention, so it's easy to have a conversation but you can't do much else.

Seasoning a stew or a soup allows you to move around the kitchen space, sprinkling this and that into the pot, having someone else taste it...

Kneading bread is potentially sensual in its own right, massaging the dough, getting your fingers sticky, a dusting of flour on the nose...

 

[NuclearFairy]

Might it depend on how actively you want them focused on the cooking, or if they're talking, flirting, touching each other, during?

It's a mother daughter reunion type talk. (Daughter is 13) Mom is trying to get to know her daughter and daughter, is not used to people. It's been awkward so far. Which I think fits.

 

[PennyThompson]

What if you made the food preparation parallel their relationship?

Mom is a an experienced cook and knows what she's doing, and the daughter doesn't?

Daughter fumbles around trying to chop onions or something, Mom gently teaches her what to do?

Mom tries to bring her in by letting her taste the soup and offer suggestions? Daughter wants more spice, Mom isn't so sure but wants to indulge her?

Later on Mom is red and sweating trying to eat the super spicy soup, while daughter is oblivious and proud that she helped cook?

Or something like that! Use the food prep to reveal relationships and emotions!

 

[NuclearFairy]

We really need a reaction. Those are all good points.

 

[dirk2024]

Kneading bread is potentially sensual in its own right, massaging the dough, getting your fingers sticky, a dusting of flour on the nose...

A dusty white hand print on someone's butt...

 

[dirk2024]

It's a mother daughter reunion type talk. (Daughter is 13) Mom is trying to get to know her daughter and daughter, is not used to people. It's been awkward so far. Which I think fits.

What if you made the food preparation parallel their relationship?

Mom is a an experienced cook and knows what she's doing, and the daughter doesn't?

Daughter fumbles around trying to chop onions or something, Mom gently teaches her what to do?

Mom tries to bring her in by letting her taste the soup and offer suggestions? Daughter wants more spice, Mom isn't so sure but wants to indulge her?

Later on Mom is red and sweating trying to eat the super spicy soup, while daughter is oblivious and proud that she helped cook?

Or something like that! Use the food prep to reveal relationships and emotions!

I like using the teaching her cooking without it seeming like mom is teaching the daughter cooking angle to help build the bond.


But I like the outcome where they both taste the whatever (soup/stew) and both realize at the same time it tastes awful (since mom gave the daughter a lot of leeway when seasoning), they look at each other...then both start laughing at their combined mistake.

And go order pizza for delivery.

 

[TheWritingGroup]

The ingredients you listed don't really add up to anything but oatmeal with apples and yogurt, as far as I can tell. Others have mentioned things you can do if you add others. (You're the writer, you can change what's in the larder.)

If there's a grinder or even mortar and pestle, you can turn the oats into groats, Scottish-style oat pieces that can then be turned into porridge. Those big pieces take a long time to cook into something edible, though.

Is your world enough like Earth that they only have Old World foods (like the ones you listed) but no maize, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc.?

 

[NuclearFairy]

The ingredients you listed don't really add up to anything but oatmeal with apples and yogurt, as far as I can tell. Others have mentioned things you can do if you add others. (You're the writer, you can change what's in the larder.)

If there's a grinder or even mortar and pestle, you can turn the oats into groats, Scottish-style oat pieces that can then be turned into porridge. Those big pieces take a long time to cook into something edible, though.

Is your world enough like Earth that they only have Old World foods (like the ones you listed) but no maize, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc.?

Yeah, old world food, with most of that being European, but I do mix in some Asian foods as well.

 

[Andreas_Kreuz]

Oat, Yoghurt, Apples -> Müsli? You can make it a Bircher Müsli (Swiss) by letting the oats germinate in milk for a few hours. In any case top it with the jam.
Cutting the apples, tasting the yoghurt, which is probably home made in such a setting, Sorting out the spelts from the oat. Memory of when the jam was cooked etc, provides points to start talking.

 

[liliput1]

There's no furnace. If the stove is cold and the hearth is cold, the house is at ambient temperature.

There were contraptions for heating water and soup over the hearth rather than an oven.

Your ingredients add up to a variety of cobbler but that's going to be a baked good which means oven.

I can't imagine why you've painted yourself into this corner and insisting on staying there. A recently abandoned house would not have yogurt for long but could potentially still have sketchy apples, jam, and oats.