Orcish Cuisine

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**Orcish cuisine** has undergone radical shifts over the last century. On Draenor, drought and famine broke traditional supply lines and lead to widespread starvation and desperate scrounging. On Azeroth, thirty years of war and displacement have led to a cuisine that is adaptable and often unrecognizable when compared with its roots.

## Common Ingredients

### Meats

One of the only unifying features across all Orcish cuisine is the heavy use of local game meats. Throughout their settlements, the preferred meat is not pork, but wild beasts. Most frequently consumed in the Barrens and Durotar are the varied herbivores - zhevra, antelope, gazelle and even giraffe. The meat, often strongly flavoured, is usually consumed raw if possible, and stewed in tougher cuts.

Second to their taste for game meats, the Orcish diet is heavy in the consumption of pork. Reared in most settlements, the unsophisticated diet and hardy nature of swine makes them ideal for the often marginal conditions Orcish settlements thrive in. Eaten either as-is or processed into cured goods (bacon is especially popular) and sausage, swine is one of the few meats Orcs do not eat raw.

It this characteristic fondness for raw meat that causes much of the initial disgust felt by travellers sharing an Orc's table. Meat, so long as it is fresh or properly aged and shows no signs of serious decay, is eaten raw to preserve flavour, texture and nutrition. This is doubly so with the liver and heart of game animals. In particularly humid areas, it is not uncommon to forgo aging the carcass entirely in favour of fresh consumption, as the weather renders it difficult to prevent undesirable rot over periods greater than two to three days (if not less).

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### Fruits, Grains and Vegetables

* The main staples of the modern Orcish diet vary from region to region, but two grains are a common feature across their territories. Maize and rice, when either can be cultivated, are held in esteem - in large part because of the influence of the greater Horde, and especially the Tauren and Trolls. Rice cultivated in the Southfury in the cooler months was exported across the extent of Horde territory until that river's tainting by Goblin industrialists, and maize grown in the more fertile areas of Durotar and the Barrens (and supplemented by trade in the same from the Tauren) has seen a rise in Tauren-inspired meals.
* While fruits vary wildly in each and every area occupied by the Orcs, those belonging to the New Horde are often fond of the prickly pear and the cactus apple, two closely related subspecies of paddle cacti that are endemic in Durotar, the Barrens, and the Thousand Needles. These hardy plants produce a juicy, sweet fruit which can be dried, eaten fresh, cooked, or juiced and boiled into a syrup. The fruits keep well when preserved and are harvested in sufficient quantity to make export to less arid regions possible, and their distinct flavour is increasingly popular in a range of Goblin-produced hard and soft candies marketed to the Orcish people.
* Dried fruit.

## Regional Specialties

### Barrens

* Scorpid meat.
* Water plants.
* Cactus apples and cactus apple surprise.
* Rat stews.
* There is an increasingly important Tauren influence in the cuisine of the Barrens, as the Orcs seek to adapt to their new homeland. While still an ongoing process, their close association with the Tauren - who have roamed the Barrens for centuries - is proving an incredibly valuable source of information about foodstuffs that would otherwise be neglected. A prime example is the enset palm. This staple of the oases was neglected on the arrival of the Orcs, as its fruit is unpleasant. Only with the guidance of the Tauren did they learn that the roots and hearts of the palm are the better foodstuff.
* Grilled zhevra.
* Raptor stew.
* Meat packed in boar fat.
* Delicious melons, and their seeds. Watermelons especially. While they feel like a tropical fruit, cultivars can do exceptionally well in very dry areas so long as the soil isn't completely dry down below the surface. Also, again: *watermelons are delicious as hell.*
* The enset palm in the oases and green scar, though unsuited to the more arid areas. Echo Isles for the trolls?
* Drought-resistant locust beans and marama.
* Shea butter.
* Marula fruit, which does great in arid areas and is delicious.
* Baobabs along the Ashenvale border.
* Mesquite pods.
* Saguaro, if they appear. Can't recall at present.
* Agave - and it's well known refinement...

Amaranth is an important local supplement in the Barrens, introduced to the Orcs by the local Tauren. Amaranth grows well during the winter and tolerates the summers, requires little water to survive (though to truly thrive, irrigation needs to be applied in the arid areas of the Barrens), and thrives in loose and sandy soils like those found throughout the Southern Barrens. The small seeds of the plant - black, rarely bigger than a poppyseed - are unusually rich in protein with a nutty flavour, and an individual plant may produce up to half a million for the harvest. Ground into flour and used to fortify bread (or make delicious, delicate flatbreads) or roasted by the fire (where they 'pop', not unlike corn), amaranth seed provides both calories and easily accessible protein during the winter and keeps well through the summer months. The leaves and stems are also edible, as are the vibrantly coloured flowers, and are usually eaten either in salads, boiled and served with meat, or as part of soups. Amaranth plays an increasing role in the fertile 'Scar' dividing the Barrens and the area around the Wailing Caverns, where the high humidity and rainfall serve to bring the crop to its highest capacities, producing food yields far in excess of other grains.

   The aizen shrub is a hardy plant found throughout the central and southern barrens, near immune to the blazing sun and extremely drought resistant. It offers cherry-sized berries with a sweet flesh that often dries to a stiff, toffee-like syrup in the boiling heat. This hardened flesh is scraped off the seed and boiled to produce a syrup used to sweeten other dishes, or eaten as-is. The seed itself may be dried and prepared soaking, boiling, and baking, and can be found at times when other staples can be extremely scarce. The roots can be boiled into a sweet stodgy gruel, and even the leaves may be eaten boiled or stewed. While not sought as a staple, the aizen's sweet products are a popular supplement to the diet, and the seeds keep long enough to serve as excellent famine insurance. In a lesson learned from the quilboar, the leaves and roots are increasingly being used to purify water, as they coagulate particulate matter from dirty water.

### Orgrimmar and Durator

* Cranberries in the Southfury basin.
* Pork and bacon.
* Sand carp.
* Crawfish.
* Jambalaya.
* Stag meat from Azshara.
* Golden stonefish.
* Clams from the Bay.
* Prickly pear fruit.
* 'Scorpid surprise'
* Nougat.
* Traditional cuisine revival under Thrall post-Crusade? Blood porridge and grainbread.

### Alterac

* Roast venison.
* Roast hare.

### Blackrock Orcs

* Roast boar.
* Pickled eggs.
* Pretzels.
* Ale, Dark Iron Ale.
* Blackrock Lager.

## Drinking Culture

### Wine

Orcish wine culture is an unusual hybrid of circumstance, ingredient, and traditional lessons learned during the First Interbellum Period. Most orc wines differ from those produced by Human and Elvish vineyards, either by the incorporation of local ingredients and methods or by the *terroir* greatly influencing the final product.

The most notorious, and widespread, Orcish wine is the distinctive 'boar wine'. With pigs a common product of Orcish farms, and good lumber in short supply throughout much of their territory, many Orcish brewers and vintners have turned to an economic and novel solution (with certain reflections in the Mag'har diet). The emptied and cleaned stomach of a boar or sow is filled with the usual juices and yeasts, whether grape or other fruits, then tied off tightly and allowed to ferment. The naturally water-tight stomach prevents loss of moisture and is flexible enough to expand during fermentation, and unless overfilled, is generally easier to transport than equivalent clay or even wood vessels.

However, boar wine is notorious not only for its method of production, but for the distinctive flavours this method produces. While the wines are often anemic compared to those 'properly' fermented, they take on new flavours from stomach flora that survived the cleaning process, along with the inevitable action of some of the wine's yeast interacting with and breaking down the stomach lining of vessel. Boar-fermented wines usually carry an unusual, 'meaty' or 'musky' flavour, sometimes with coppery notes.

* Regular wine.
* Cactus apple wine.

### Beer

The least common of Orc beverages, apparently.

#### Drohn's Distillery

* Makes beers, oddly, rather than spirits.
* Organ-meat beers taught by Chen Stormstout. Crazy stuff.

### Cider

One of the most appreciated results of the Orc's new environment is the rise of a new variety of ciders: Cactus cider, made from the prickly pear and the cactus apple. While more closely resembling a wine in its production, the resulting product is similar to a bitter beer or cider. Usually, cactus ciders are exceptionally cloudy and dry, with a high alcohol content. Originally created to provide a cheap drink for the labouring peons, cactus cider has since begun to achieve genuine popularity among the Horde, especially when served cold. Sweet varieties are available, but are rarely as popular as the bitter flavours achieved solely by using the right cacti.

## Rationales and Disclaimers

* Mag'har have their own article, and minimal influence here due to the 30 years of displacement. However, under Thrall and Garrosh, there's a damn good chance some old recipes would have been revived - blood porridge, grain bread, some of the cheeses. Especially with the influx of Mag'har into Orgrimmar, small as it is, and the traditionalist movement.
* There will be considerable SW influence in the final, along with Trollish and Tauren factors.
* Blackrocks have huge cross-over with Dark Irons, but are included here as they're starting to join the 'mainstream' Horde and may bring that food with them.
* Blackrocks have more beer than the rest, probably due to that Dark Iron influence.
* We don't know why orcs like raw meat, but preserving taste and texture seems the most likely. Raw meat has a distinctive and often very pleasant flavour and mouthfeel, especially fresh organmeats. Daring readers might like to try thinly sliced beef heart for an example, then compare it to stir-fried or stewed.
* Boar wine is either wine made with boars, or made *from* boars. With boar stomachs seemed the more likely choice, and one with real-world parallels.
* Many of the fanon additions to the greater Barrens (Durotar and Orgrimmar, Northern and Southern Barrens, areas of Stonetalon) are drawn from real-world plants from Africa's arid regions (and, for the invigorated areas of the central Barrens, some of the jungles) and the American deserts. This is thematically suited to the animal life of the region, and also provides further botanical diversity to play with. Great resources in this field are available, especially the Lost Crops of Africa series from which most of these additions are drawn.
* Some plants consumed by the Tauren aren't consumed by the Orcs. There are two rationales behind this: First, that the biology of Orcs and Tauren differ sufficiently that plants which the Tauren find palatable and digestible can be indigestible or even poisonous to the Orcs. Second, that marginal plants may not have been introduced to the Orcs due to their relatively low importance to the diet.
* Amaranth is a neglected crop today, often unknown or considered food of last resort outside of a few areas. This actually fits nicely with its role in this article, which is as a foodstuff that helps bridge the gap between 'proper' crops and which was exploited by the Tauren during their great distressful wandering.
* The references are just me keeping track of where to look in my books when I've got the time to do a full write-up.

1. ↑ See 'egusi' in LCoA2 for later
2. ↑ Enset, LCoA2
3. ↑ LCoA3