28th of Ash, 4622
It was around a third way through the season of Ash that Jared felt that additional preparations were required to ensure that the place that he would soon be adopting as a place of his home would be for Genteven. The thief had his eyes on a small building around the outer city sections within the City of Momentums that he could spend as his home base despite it only being about a day’s travel by sea to return home in Alistian.
The idea of purchasing a simple cottage with an additional room to store a variety of things, such as preserved foods & stolen items, thought it would be a good idea to have someone install a hidden room where he could keep his precious goods out of sight. However, the price of purchasing such a place would be a bit far beyond his reach & needing to make an essential living from thievery & cooking will take some time & lots of elbow grease, but that doesn’t stop the hard-working thief from trying.
“Seems like today will be all about preparing an assortment of mixes, making other preserved foods again as usual… Further preparations are required in case the winter is harsher than usual.”
Taking a moment to get himself organised, he arranged the various bowls and utensils, after which getting the hearth started with some small logs of wood & assembling the fuel to ignite the flames. Accounting for the number of materials available on hand & what other necessary preparations are required, The amber-eyed cook takes a moment to peer through his notes as he keeps a general list of what is essential to make a living through the season of Frost comfortably. After all, he was going to look after himself & any excess foodstuffs & materials that he could spare would be nice if things went south.
It wasn’t unusual for households to start their Frost preparations around this time as most of the population merely lived on a day-by-day basis & the taxation from official bodies tended to sweep away what available funding everyone could afford, leaving few farthlings & dranaris to spare.
“Alright, time to get started; Surely would have enough for Frost, but at least a bit more variety would be nice… I wonder how the Entente managed through winter; I can only assume it is quite cozy compared to here in the lower districts.”
The random thought of how a noble would live throughout the Frost does intrigue the thief as it was generally a time when food & resources were sparse & things were constantly changing on a whim, such as the laws that the lower class is subject to but being in one of the largest trading hubs within the realm; There is always a constant stream of goods roaming about.
“Need to visit the markets when I have a chance; There is probably a large number of vegetables & legumes that I can acquire; I might need to visit a pottery maker to obtain some additional jars as well since I am going through them like no tomorrow… Also might need to look at obtaining some crates as well….”
With that in mind, Jared took a moment to look over his ware and calculate what he would need. While mathematics and arithmetic aren’t his strong suit, he could, at the very least, do some complicated maths when it comes to anything related to cooking.
The journeyman cook noted that a few things needed to be added to his winter preparations & his general winter dedication. A few large crates of root vegetables, notably items such as potatoes, rutabaga & carrots, and some other random fruits such as rafels.
These fruits, which had a sour flavour with a chewy texture and were often dipped with honey as a sort of winter dessert, mass and had an oblong shape that was about 7 to 12cm long & about 3 to 5 inches thick with a thin, reddish cream skin that has a fruity floral smell which is often used in baths as the oils would perfume the bath water. What was nice about these fruits was that they could be stored in low temperatures & would start to rot after about a month or two, and the jams made from these paired well with a lot of various staples that would often be considered bland.
One particular item that Jared was looking forward to was known as Mehren, which looked similar to your typical carrot but was often coloured a marrow-brown to deep crimson red that exudes a robust alliaceous quality and would work well for many soups & stews for the winter.
Not only that, Any chef could use the leafy sections to garnish or season other dishes, which also impart a milder infusion of onion & garlic notes with hints of pepper.
The only issue was that Most farmers & gathers often sold out this particular root vegetable since it was such a versatile item. Most households would rush to get their hands on it if they could, like when Searing rolls around and the pig slaughter festivals occur for pork preparations for Frost.
Either way, Jared was pondering about what possible vegetables, fruits, nuts & other assortments of goods he could get his hands on. First, however, the apprentice thief minded his own business in making up his preserved goods.
His first item on his agenda was to make a large amount of granola which was easy enough to make. The process of dumping in a large number of rolled oats, dried fruits such as raisins & dates and available nuts in a wooden bowl, giving it a quick few stirs to ensure that the mixture is well distributed; once The journeyman cook did that; The amber-eyed thief pours over a large amount of honey & maple syrup into the bowl before again mixing.
Placing the sugar-coated mixture onto the wooden benchtop, Jared took a moment to assemble the granola into thin slabs & pressing the mix with his weight before a compacted slab was created. From there, the journeyman thief takes a sharp knife and begins to slice the slab into similar-sized bars, allowing them to rest for a couple of hours as the granola bars.
The next set of things that needed to be done was drying out some legumes, which was simple enough by merely laying out a tray of nuts and setting it close to the hearth as the heat would slowly dry out the nuts & legumes and occasionally allowing the tray to be pulled away from the heat source & rest to prevent it from overcooking.
Drying out the legumes was necessary if you wanted them to be available for an extended period of time, such as travelling, reducing the amount of weight by removing excess water & preventing organoleptic degradation that can affect the nutritional & sensory value of the food.
It is removing much of the hard-earned sweat by dabbing his forehead onto a nearby rag. The Alistian thief couldn't help but notice how much time has passed; it still amazes the thief how time can move so quickly at specific points in someone's life and feel stagnant in other parts.
Trying to fix as many preparations as possible in a single day is tricky, as only having a pair of hands and limited space can be pretty challenging. Either way, the Journeyman Cook checked most of his list for the time being; the only things that needed to be done were to make his flour blends & smoke some large chunks of meat that he had acquired earlier in the day.
Making flour blends was simple enough; all that was required was using a scale and making sure that equal ratios were applied or creating an odd combination, such as a 1:3 blend of various flour types, such as standard maslin flour to rye flour for an extra dark, malty flavour. Jared could make multiple blends, but he had to be realistic about what he would generally use rather than experiment with; this is a bit of a struggle for the cook, who learns much of his craft by experimentation.
The last thing to do for the day was to smoke some chunks of meat; it was only then that Jared quickly realised that the necessary buildings required to keep smoked meat & making such products were only available if he went back home to Alistian.
This did annoy the thief, but there was always an alternative: drying the meat through salt, which Jared tried to avoid since it would heavily affect the dishes using salted meat, but The amber-eyed thief couldn't help it at this point.
It was something he could do on the next cooking session as he was running out of time & needed to make up his meal for the day.
"Well, that was a good day's worth of work. Now it is time to make dinner… Preparing for Frost can be exhausting, but it is all worth it."
