My mother told me that I wasn't that clever with the "shaped by the shaperate". Audur thought it was though, but suggested "Lyrium Lickers" as an alternative. For obvious reasons I declined. Silas is puzzled over the Deep Crawler Stuffed Rock Licker recipe.
– A note penned in the margins by Anjou Baskar
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About the Bits
Another Note On Brontos
When it comes to the uses of brontos, there are a few things to consider: the structure of the meat - referring to how lean the meat can be, the cut being used, and the cooking method. As I have mentioned previously, the texture of bronto meat is similar to pork, whereas the taste is that of elk and beef. This leads to the meat easily becoming dry if one is not careful. To avoid this on thinner cuts of meat, or to simply avoid having dry and mealy burgers or sausages, it is common to mix in fat from another animal or even tallow from the bronto.
For things such as filets, shanks, steaks, and tenderloin. As mentioned, one could use fat, or if aiming for more neutral tastes, a cooking oil. I am of the personal opinion that neutral oils are best, as I have found, instead pairing the meat with sauces composed of berries, deep mushrooms, pomegranate, or plums is a more satisfying arrangement. The flavours of the fruits provide a bright bit of contrast to the gamey taste, while the mushrooms can highlight the meat’s natural sweetness with their savory and earthy profile.
For other cuts, preparations such as pies, roasts, or stews the primary uses. Such slow cooking methods are quite common in dwarven homes that they have at least one; either passed down from their ancestors or the favoured dish they had growing up in Orzammar or the Ambassadoria. In these dishes, additions such as root vegetables, lentils, leeks, mushrooms, corn, ale, cream (usually from goat or nug), aromatic herbs, garlic, lemon, and/or tomatoes are favoured.
There is one recipe that combines both bronto and giant spiders, making what the house has aptly named “Deep Crawler Stuffed Rock Lickers”. A rather inventive recipe that uses primarily ingredients sourced in the Deep Roads save for fruits such as lemons or oranges.
Shaped by the Shaperate
A bit of uncommon knowledge to those outside the more historically minded dwarven households: the brontos of today descend from stock that was painstakingly created by the Shaperate by exposing select breeding stock — that is unfortunately now lost to us — to raw lyrium over many centuries. Any record of what the original form of brontos was lost to anyone outside the deepest records of the Shaperate.
It has led many to wonder what prompted such a project? Was it their hardy diet that we originally capitalized on or their bulking mass? What other stock have we lost from our lost empire prior to the blights or when we forging connections to the surface?
