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> Balls of qurt dissolved in water with flour and jerky made for quick camp dinners The article mentions that qurt is rich in protein, but the fat is key. Jerk

> Balls of qurt dissolved in water with flour and jerky made for quick camp dinners The article mentions that qurt is rich in protein, but the fat is key. Jerky is very lean, and lacking carbohydrate rich foods, needs to be supplemented with fat for energy to be sustainable. The American aboriginals added tallow to jerky for this purpose, creating pemmican. Apparently dairy foods weren't part of their culture. These foods are the closest thing we have to Tolkein's "lembas".

NikolaeVarius 6y ago
What. Lembas was nowhere neat pemmican. It was explicitly a form of bread, and most likely based on hardtack, that Tolkien would have been exposed to on the seas and while in service. Pemmican as a specific "thing" came from the Americas, but the concept of mixing dried meats/preserved dairy and fats is something that is common in history
- Merad 6y ago
  Pretty sure that the GP is referring to the effectiveness of lembas. It's described as being extremely nutritious so that one bite can fill a man's stomach and keep him on the march all day. I'm fairly certain that Tolkien actually stated that lembas is a reference to the Eucharist. No doubt he had experience with hardtack, but IRL hardtack isn't really known for being nutritious or pleasant to eat.
  - Mediterraneo10 6y ago
    > I'm fairly certain that Tolkien actually stated that lembas is a reference to the Eucharist. I'd really want to see a cite for that. Tolkien was infamously hostile to any allegorical reading of The Lord of the Rings. Sometimes a fantasy epic is just a fantasy epic.
    - cynicalkane 6y ago
      Tolkien both claimed that LOTR was allegorical and that it wasn't. Probably he was using the common definition of allegory in one context and the literary definition in the other. When Tolkien said he disliked allegory, he meant he disliked literary works that map directly onto some external meaning that was necessary for understanding the story. He thought a story should stand on its own, and, further, it wasn't good writing to try to force a story into allegory rather than let it take its own direction. But we also know from his letters that he purposefully incorporated religious (specifically, Catholic) metaphors into LOTR, which most people would call allegory, including Tolkien on some occasions.
    - Merad 6y ago
      Was able to find it through Tokien Gateway (a really great reference, BTW), Letter 213: http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Letter_213 http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Letter_213 > From [Tolkien's] works one could deduce the Christianity but not perhaps the Roman Catholicism, except that one critic related invocations the Elbereth and Galadriel's character to Catholic devotion to Mary. Another saw lembas, which fed the will and became more potent when fasting, as derived from the Eucharist.
      - Mediterraneo10 6y ago
        From your link (written in rather grammatically flawed English) it is unclear whether Tolkien intended that symbolism, or if he was only relating that a third party claimed that symbolism in his work.
KSS42 6y ago
There is a similar in purpose Punjabi food called pinni made from flour, sugar, ghee and nuts. They also provide a lot of energy and last a long time. I have thought of those as lembas. Ingredients: • 1 kg atta (wheat flour) • 500 gm chinni (white granulated sugar) • 500 gm ghee (clarified butter) or olive oil • 250 gm khoya (congealed sweet cream) • Mewa (to taste): badam (almonds), piste (pistachios), kishmish (raisins) http://www.indoamerican-news.com/mamas-punjabi-recipes-atte-ki-pinni-sweet-wheat-flour-balls/ http://www.indoamerican-news.com/mamas-punjabi-recipes-atte-...
jfengel 6y ago
Any idea how the fats avoid becoming rancid? Jerky is made from lean meat to avoid rancidity. Is it the difference between dairy fat and muscle fat?
jodrellblank 6y ago
Some discussion about the plausibility of lembas here: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/56044/lembas-bread-2000-calories-per-bite https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/56044/lemb...

NikolaeVarius 6y ago

What. Lembas was nowhere neat pemmican. It was explicitly a form of bread, and most likely based on hardtack, that Tolkien would have been exposed to on the seas and while in service. Pemmican as a specific "thing" came from the Americas, but the concept of mixing dried meats/preserved dairy and fats is something that is common in history

Merad 6y ago
Pretty sure that the GP is referring to the effectiveness of lembas. It's described as being extremely nutritious so that one bite can fill a man's stomach and keep him on the march all day. I'm fairly certain that Tolkien actually stated that lembas is a reference to the Eucharist. No doubt he had experience with hardtack, but IRL hardtack isn't really known for being nutritious or pleasant to eat.
- Mediterraneo10 6y ago
  > I'm fairly certain that Tolkien actually stated that lembas is a reference to the Eucharist. I'd really want to see a cite for that. Tolkien was infamously hostile to any allegorical reading of The Lord of the Rings. Sometimes a fantasy epic is just a fantasy epic.
  - cynicalkane 6y ago
    Tolkien both claimed that LOTR was allegorical and that it wasn't. Probably he was using the common definition of allegory in one context and the literary definition in the other. When Tolkien said he disliked allegory, he meant he disliked literary works that map directly onto some external meaning that was necessary for understanding the story. He thought a story should stand on its own, and, further, it wasn't good writing to try to force a story into allegory rather than let it take its own direction. But we also know from his letters that he purposefully incorporated religious (specifically, Catholic) metaphors into LOTR, which most people would call allegory, including Tolkien on some occasions.
  - Merad 6y ago
    Was able to find it through Tokien Gateway (a really great reference, BTW), Letter 213: http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Letter_213 http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Letter_213 > From [Tolkien's] works one could deduce the Christianity but not perhaps the Roman Catholicism, except that one critic related invocations the Elbereth and Galadriel's character to Catholic devotion to Mary. Another saw lembas, which fed the will and became more potent when fasting, as derived from the Eucharist.
    - Mediterraneo10 6y ago
      From your link (written in rather grammatically flawed English) it is unclear whether Tolkien intended that symbolism, or if he was only relating that a third party claimed that symbolism in his work.

KSS42 6y ago

There is a similar in purpose Punjabi food called pinni made from flour, sugar, ghee and nuts. They also provide a lot of energy and last a long time. I have thought of those as lembas. Ingredients: • 1 kg atta (wheat flour) • 500 gm chinni (white granulated sugar) • 500 gm ghee (clarified butter) or olive oil • 250 gm khoya (congealed sweet cream) • Mewa (to taste): badam (almonds), piste (pistachios), kishmish (raisins) http://www.indoamerican-news.com/mamas-punjabi-recipes-atte-ki-pinni-sweet-wheat-flour-balls/ http://www.indoamerican-news.com/mamas-punjabi-recipes-atte-...

jfengel 6y ago

Any idea how the fats avoid becoming rancid? Jerky is made from lean meat to avoid rancidity. Is it the difference between dairy fat and muscle fat?

jodrellblank 6y ago

Some discussion about the plausibility of lembas here: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/56044/lembas-bread-2000-calories-per-bite https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/56044/lemb...