Cooking with Sanji: A Drop Them Bones Recipe Master List
For anyone looking to have all the recipes Sanji uses or refers to in Drop Them Bones listed in one place (and because I ran out of room in the AO3 notes...)
Tuna Ceviche
Almond Skin Chutney
BBQ Lionfish
Japanese Omurice
Korean Omurice (what Sanji actually makes)
Yeast Bread
Vegan Bun Rieu
Kedgeree
Tomato Chutney
Conch Fritters
Pan-fried Plantains
Wild game stock
Pike balls and dill sauce
Fish skin bacon
Jamaican Boiled Dumplings
Pike Head Congee
Spatchcock Wild Game
Homemade Flaky Salt
Ceviche (variation)
Ackee and Saltfish 1
Ackee and Saltfish 2
Street food Fish balls
Maguro no Zuke-Don
Seaweed sheets
Roasted seaweed
Spanish Tuna Steaks
Sauteed Green Beans
Mugicha
Whole Smoked Gator
But also, whole pig ground cooked
Kalua Pork
Alligator Jerky
Fish Head Porridge
How to Grill a Whole Fish
How to Bake a Whole Fish
Homemade Mayonnaise
Grilled Gator Bites
Caribbean Orange Spiced Carrots
Bento Box 101
Vegan candied mandarin peel
Honey Orange marmalade
Alligator chili
Frittata Muffins
Leftover Rice Muffins
Ackee and Corned Pork
Steamed Clams
Homemade Buttermilk
Gator Bites
Pancake Mix in a Jar
No Sugar Pancakes
Homemade mustard
Plantain frittata
Egyptian Edamame Stew
Fish broth
Fish skin chicharrons
Basic Congee
Crispy fried fish
Poached eggs
Hallabong tea, aka Dekopon tea, aka Korean Citrus Tea
Japanese Worcester Sauce (vegetarian)
Fish sauce
Tamari soy sauce
Balsamic Vinegar
Pork stew
Drop biscuits
Nigerian Pepper Soup with Offal Meat
And that's the list through Chapter 16 out of 18. More to be added as each new chapter is posted!
Referring to anything in open and plain view. An item stored or viewable from the deck was said to be kept above board.
History: On a naval vessel, items and equipment could either be stored on deck or below in the ship’s hold.
Pirates would often hide much of the crew below the deck. The ships that displayed the crew openly on the deck were thought to be honest merchant ships known as "above board".
Notes:
Boy, did I go down a research spiral on Worcestershire Sauce.
Different types of soy sauces
Then I hopped back down with cisterns
Some wound care advice: Don’t use alcohol or hydrogen peroxide to clean a wound. Don’t soak in a tub with open wounds. These boys are dumbasses, and this is a fantasy world. Don’t do it.
Found an absolutely fascinating site about surgeons in the age of pirates, and some history of cook roles and responsibilities on historical ships
Ignore the URL, this is a simple comparison of sprats and anchovies
Halldestadt is a reference to Hallstatt, Austria, a UNESCO world heritage site known for its salt
Deer hunting travois
Project Gutenberg has the 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue available for free (as all PG books are)
Yes, I did math for 300 servings of pork stew. Hog meat yields based on the equations here
Random explanation of different chef roles in the kitchen (shout out to Escoffier)
18 superstitions about death
Changing Nature of the American execution audience (requires at least a free JStor account, but your local library may also participate):
A random list of 151 Sanji quotes I found
Wax beans
Recipes I will never make at home:
Japanese Worcester Sauce (vegetarian)
Fish sauce
Tamari soy sauce
Balsamic Vinegar (seriously, do yourself a favor and just buy a commercial bottle of it)
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Sling Your Hook: To leave, clear off, move away.
History: There is much argument about whether this saying has its origins in seafaring times. Those that believe it takes its roots in nautical history believe it may refer to the pulling up of the ship’s anchor before making sail.
Recipes mangled in this chapter:
Plantain frittata: This does work with firm, ripe bananas, but since plantains hate me, I can't comment on the plantain part.
Egyptian Edamame Stew: So delicious. So good.
See the Notes for additional recipes!
Songs:
Notes:
Rehydrating dried beans. Seriously, switch that water out and give them time to soak their dried little shells.
The purpose of caulking a ship. A wooden ship that doesn't creak is a wooden ship that sinks.
Tar burning in the 1700s. Yes, this is as horrible as it sounds.
Modern nautical terms. Interesting look at the subculture.
Nautical terms for winds. Because it's its own language.
How to make rocks look shiny. Can confirm, these also work on sea shells.
This fic keeps evoking nostalgia for me and, at the risk of sounding like a food blog/life-story recipe site, I wanted to share our household’s favorite recipe: "Cheater Chili"
When we’re too tired to cook, we throw together what we cheekily call "cheater chili", ie: chili pepper-free chili (because nightshade sensitivities, yay). It's a chili-inspired dish, maybe a thick stew, maybe one step from a casserole? It's more of a framework than actual recipe.
This is also about the only thing my partner trusts me to make unattended, because usually everything I work with is precut and it doesn’t require continuous attention (seriously, you set one pan on fire...)
Cheater chili is literally:
a diced-up protein (usually tofu, ground meat, or sausage)
a can of fire roasted tomatoes if I can handle nightshades that week
a bag of frozen fire roasted sliced mushrooms
a bag of frozen diced onions
a pint box of broth (usually Pacific mushroom broth) with some water depending on how soupy we want
a can of beans (like low sodium kidney, cannelloni, navy, pinto, or black), and
whatever spices sound good with the above proteins
We dump everything in the Instant Pot or slow cooker (I toss it all in at the same time) on high heat for about 2 hours, and usually the meat is at temp by then (still need to check with a thermometer if you're using chunks of raw meat or meat on the bone, though).
Using diced tofu or precooked breakfast sausage (apple chicken basil!) means it’s ready in about 30 minutes.
You can use a stew pot on medium heat on the stove for the same effect, just check it every so often to prevent burning (sensing a theme in my cooking adventures?)
For thicker consistency, don't drain the beans and just pour the whole can in with the liquid.
For lower sodium, rinse any canned or frozen veggies and beans.
If you care about textures, ground meat will turn into a thick crumble paste consistency if cooked for more than two hours, while diced meat will be fork tender after about three hours and can handle longer times in the cooker. Softer ingredients like onions or apples will just dissolve into nonexistence after about three hours.
If my allergies are flaring up, we skip the tomatoes and substitute diced zucchini or a bag of store-bought shredded coleslaw vegetables, because it's really about the liquid ratio.
You can change it up weekly with kale, spinach, carrots, whole mushrooms, canned cream of mushroom soup, canned leek and potato soup, eggs, thick noodles like cavatappi, actual chilies if they don’t kill you, gnocchi, fresh garlic, a different broth, flavored salt, flavored olive oil, different herbs, or even dairy, like sour cream or kefir (add anything with dairy at the end or it'll separate horribly and be an abomination)
Basically, it's a good way to clean out the fridge and freezer, or use up leftovers. I personally like Lidl's wild game/venison spice or McCormick's za'atar mix added on top at the end.
If you use ground pork (or vegan substitute), diced tomatoes, diced onions, rice, and a jar of kimchi (Goshen vegan white for us), you’ve essentially made deconstructed halupki (aka cabbage rolls, aka the real pigs in a blanket, not those wiener dog things they serve in the South). This blew my mind and changed my world (and my waistline).
Any variation of the recipe usually pairs great with a soft crusty bread and butter, rice or grains like farro (we often use Seeds of Change microwave packets), or scooped over flavored roasted potatoes or mashed potatoes. If you have a bag of frozen hashbrowns, it pairs best with the meatier versions.
Following the above basic ingredients yields about six to eight one-cup servings, maybe a cup and a half if you use more liquid, so for two people, it can be about three meals made in 30 minutes to a couple hours, on a weekend day where you literally just opened cans or bags, tossed it in the slow cooker, and walked away. You don’t even have to stir most of the time.
You might get more servings if you go the accompany with bread, grains, or potatoes route, or if you add a new ingredient the next day, like a different meat, veggie or grain, which can also change the flavor profile so it doesn’t get boring. We’ll add red meats to other red meats (like elk, venison, or bison), or add tofu to chicken, or start basic with an herb like sage and keep layering new herbs on like thyme or coriander. If you get sick of soup, you can simmer it down to a stew gravy and go heavier on the starch base to get essentially an upside-down shepherd’s pie.
Some experiments have been more successful than others, so it's really just figuring out what you like and pairing those flavors up. If you go really basic flavor-wise and portion out your leftovers in separate containers, you can play around with different spices to see what you like best. Just remember to follow food safety if you’re adding new raw meat to the dish (ie: cook the raw meat first in the pot, then add the leftovers to it, not the other way around).
Depending on where you shop, it’s usually between $2 and $4 a serving, so it’s multiple heavy, filling meals for pretty cheap.
The young adult in me wishes we knew this recipe back when we were first starting out in the real world, but we also honed plenty of skills from zhuzhing up packet ramen. The food stamps kid in me cringes at the cost of buying food pre-cut, but the working adult in me recognizes that's one of the only ways we'll eat healthier, so we budget accordingly. Yes, I contain multitudes.
The servings also keep well in the freezer for a couple weeks. I finally splurged and got a Souper Saver, so we can portion it out into one cup servings of deadly frozen soup bricks (microwave 4-5 minutes until thawed).
At a Loose End: to finalise the details or requirements of an activity.
History: This term refers to the final task of the sailor to secure the loose ends to ensure the vessel is ready and shipshape.
Notes:
ETA: This story has definitely grown far larger than intended, but I do have only about 5 chapters left!
What to do when hungover
Evaporated milk is not the same as Condensed milk
Marinating cooked meat is a thing that can make your leftovers go farther with different and/or better flavors.
Mustard seeds are fascinating.
Recipes mangled in the making of this chapter:
I substituted applegator for pork here
Steamed clams. I'm secretly an octopus-otter creature and would live on clams if they wouldn't kill me.
Homemade buttermilk: So this claims that both methods also work with dairy substitutes like nut-milks, but I have yet to see evidence of that beyond soy milk. I haven't gotten it to work with almond or rice milk at all. I may need to experiment with different brands.
Gator Bites: Sounds like a reasonable enough recipe, so I included it, but the corn and peppers would kill me, lol.
Pancake mix: I once received homemade pancake mix as a present and have never forgotten how thoughtful the giver was or how easy it was to use.
No Sugar Pancakes: If you've ever made the mistake of typing "sugar-free" into a search engine while allergic to most sugar substitutes besides honey, you know my pain and you know how hard it was to find this recipe.
Homemade mustard: I didn't actually have Sanji making this in the chapter, but it's part of the gator bites recipe and so simple to do at home, I recommend trying it at least once in your life.
This expression refers to the attempt during battle between ships to maneuver in a way as to have the opponents stem or stern facing your cannons so they could be fired to "rake the ship from stem to stern".
Notes:
I don’t think we’ve had a recipe-free chapter since near the beginning, lol.
If you notice, all of the named OCs in this chapter are duck themed. I kicked around a couple ideas, but came across a folk tale about a corrupt ruler whose people revolted and his name was duck-related, so I just took that and ran with it. I now forget the name of that folk tale, because I thought I had it in my notes, but it's been almost 18 months since I thought of it *sad deflating noises*
I debated having the action carry out across multiple chapters, if only for pacing compared to the rest of the story, but honestly, OPLA action scenes are more like a pirate drive-by that leaves shell-shocked villagers in its wake than anything long and plotty, so I thought one chapter would meet our needs.
Ah, Sanji whump. Always a favorite vintage.
I started this in September 2023, and now there's only three more chapters to go after this! You'll be happy to hear that I just need to finish Chapters 16 and 17 -- Chapter 18 has been complete for almost a year now *laugh-cry emoji string* I'm determined to finish this before March 10!
A broadside was the simultaneous firing of the guns and/or canons on one side of a war ship. Today, it means much the same type of all-out, often verbal, attack.
This chapter took me a bit longer than planned because I kept going back and forth on the cliffhanger - but since I only need to write one more scene for Chapter 15, I felt fairly safe posting. Hopefully, you won't have to wait too long (knock on wood, I just jinxed myself). I need to get this thing finished by March 10, but at least Chapter 18 is already written and waiting for me to finish 15-17...
So I watched a couple videos on cleaning, fileting, and skinning a pike, because I realized I skimmed over that in earlier chapters:
Fileting and skinning a pike.
Another way of doing it, but I think Sanji would use the first style above.
A helpful fish cooking guide.
Not Sanji over here, re-creating Earl Grey and Hallabong teas…
Salt mining is a hazardous nightmare.
So I wanted Gild to give a vibe of like tropical, Azure Coast, Amalfi Coast, kind of stacked, buildings going up the hills and mountains, with a dash of Isla Sorna from Jurassic Park 3. Hopefully that made sense and came across in the description. It's geography is more vertical than Loguetown and far more lush than Whiskey Peak or Alabasta.
Recipes distressed in the making of this chapter:
Call back to Chapter 3’s Yeast Bread: I fail horribly at doing anything with yeast, but my partner has their own personalized apron that says, "Because I Knead the Dough"
Fish broth: If we don't use mushroom broth, we use fish broth for most recipes. Buying a whole fish is usually reserved for special occasions, so there's not much call to make fish broth from scratch in our house, but it is an oddly satisfying thing to do.
Fish skin chicharrons: I am not an animal skin person, but my partner will eat pretty much anything. We haven't tried fish skin, yet, but give us time (ugh).
Basic Congee: Much like cheater chili, this basic congee recipe is the gift that keeps giving (leftovers).
Crispy fried fish: I usually like my fish pouch-cooked for moisture and tenderness (sealed tent of tinfoil, fish on top of veg/aromatics/oil, oven at 400F for 20 min), but if we're going with fried, this is the way I like them.
Poached eggs: I love eggs. I love poached eggs. I get upset when people put vinegar in the water of poached eggs intended for sweet dishes. This recipe does not use vinegar.
Hallabong tea, aka Dekopon tea, aka Korean Citrus Tea: I can’t really tolerate most of the ingredients in hydration drinks like Liquid IV, Pedialyte, or Gatorade, so when I’m sick, I drink a lot of hallabong tea. It’s to the point that I can’t really drink it when I feel well, in a sad Pavlovian way, but it’s a major comfort drink when I’m feeling poorly. I prefer HAIO over Jayone brand, but that’s really a consistency thing. I've even gone with orange marmalade and extra honey.
Fufu: I'm not sure if it was clear in the chapter that one of the vendors was making fufu, but I wanted to include the recipe here because the crew has been eating a lot of yeast bread in this story, lol. You can get a box mix that's super easy to use, like Mama's, or you can try the recipe. We usually outsource to a local Nigerian restaurant that provides a saran-wrapped ball of fufu bigger than a cantaloupe with every entrée. Seriously, you could kill a man with it.
Songs, likely also distressed in the making of this chapter:
I'm currently reading chapter 7 of Drop Them Bones, in the middle of a thunderstorm. It is 00:27 and I'm determined to finish up til the current chapter before I sleep.
So anyway yeah, thanks for the awesome OP fic. I really love it.
I'm glad you're enjoying it! Just remember to sleep and take care of you!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Square Meal: A good quality, nutritious meal
History: This term was most likely derived from the fact that sailors were served their meals on square shaped plates. However, from the 1500’s onwards, the word ‘square’ meant that something was upstanding, proper or straightforward.
So Chapter 10 is the longest chapter so far, but I figured I could be forgiven for the length, given how long it's been taking me to update these days...
Notes:
If you google “things found in an alligator’s stomach”, I guarantee you will be equal parts fascinated and horrified.
Since posting the last chapter, I’ve eaten alligator twice – both times in the Midwest, of all places…
Research spiral, Jamaican Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries
I love making bento boxes, but often fail to have time during the week. That doesn’t stop me from having a collection of adorable food picks, various vegetable cutters, cute egg poachers, and more silicone cups than you can shake a stick at.
Random link on Coevolution
Layers of a rainforest
Tropical Fruits
Alligator eggs are squishy!
Recipes slain in the making of this chapter:
Fish Head Porridge: I know I've already had a congee recipe in another chapter that uses fish heads, but they really are delicious...
How to Grill a Whole Fish: I've set fish on fire using this technique.
How to Bake a Whole Fish: I've also set fish on fire using this technique.
Homemade Mayonnaise: I'm a firm believer in the difference between a mayonnaise and an aioli, and I am invariably sad-faced when restaurants lie. This recipe is helpful if you always have the other ingredients on hand, but sometimes go through mayo too fast and it's too late at night to order groceries...
Grilled Gator Bites: Like most food things native to Florida, gator bites are usually fried to hell and back with spices that make them unrecognizable as their original meat. Ref. conch fritters in Chapter 4.
Caribbean Orange Spiced Carrots: So simple, so delicious. I could live on these.
Bento Box 101: If you've never taken the time to make yourself a bento box, I highly recommend it as self-care. The little shapes, the tiny food, the variety, the splendor. Seriously, I collect plastic food picks from anywhere I can find them (usually international food markets) - there's nothing quite like daintily plucking a star-shaped carrot with your teeth from a pick that has a horrified-looking octopus on the end to brighten your day.
