Iron Queen's Roast Ox

History

While this dish has existed for frankly as long as anyone can remember its name comes from the late queen of the Badlands - Queen Aleratha. On one of her fairly frequent visits to the Empire's late king, a snowstorm hit during her travel, making it impossible to continue any further until it had subsided. The nearest inn was not one worthy of royalty by any standards and one can only imagine too well the fear of the owners, having to suddenly feed and house the notoriously hard to please Iron Queen. However, she was served this dish and proclaimed it the greatest thing she'd ever tasted. She demanded it to be named for her as she was the one to "discover this delicacy" and it seemed no one wanted to explain to her that it had been eaten for generations all across the Antarctic Empire.

Significance

Oxen are some of the only animals of which there are plenty in the Antarctic Empire. The extreme cold means a lack of fresh produce so, despite the comparative to other places' lack of livestock, meat remains the antarcticans primary food source. While the winters are extremely harsh and it is almost entirely impossible to hunt and harvest in the depths of those cold months, preserving and storing food has never been a problem - especially meat. "Ice Cellars" are a common sight - deep holes dug below into the icy ground. These are big enough to store food for the entire year and, as antarcticans are very community driven people, there will often be large cellars in the center of small villages where the whole village will store their meat. It's not uncommon for a family to 4-5 oxen in the course of a year - after which the pelts will become clothing and the horns into all sorts of items but most commonly drinking horns.

Item type

Consumable, Food / Drink

Rarity

Very Common

Base Price

8gp

Raw materials & Components

Ox leg, herbs, spices, carrots