Saccharines
Merchant caravans, ship voyagers, and travelers unfamiliar with the hot desert sands of Mourianji all find themselves in the need of foodstuffs that can survive long journeys. Jerky and hardtack are often staples, but their nutritional value is lacking and extended diets based on these can lead to various forms of malnutrition. To avoid these issues, the Mourianji pirates began developing a unique type of dried meat that staved off scurvy in their crew.
The ingredients are simple: fruit, meat, and salt. The fruit is often a mix with incredibly sweet items like berries mixed with sour citrus. This fruit is mashed and strained, keeping the pulp. The leftovers often stored in barrels with other ingredients to produce liqueurs and wines to avoid wasting the syrupy liquid. The mash is then mixed with minced meat, often pork or beef but lamb or even fish will work, and spread into thin strips in a drying room covered in thick layers of salt. After a couple weeks, the meat will be cured allowing the food to survive long voyages. The fruit mash provides a mostly sweet taste that is heigtened by the saltiness of the outermost layer.
History
There are two competing origins to saccharines. The Pirate Clans of Mourianji have claimed the development of the sweetened jerky to avoid scurvy in their ranks as some ships will stay away from port for months in hopes of being forgotten about by the merchants in the area. In the western side of Mourianji are nomadic clans that many believe have been using this jerky to survive the hazardous journey through the shifting sands. The recipes have been passed on for many generations. Some point out that the pirate clans only began using saccharines a few months after one of their rank returned from Zafir, an oasis city in the western desert. Of course, the pirates' point in return tends to be of the sharpened variety and leaves dissenters with less to point with. This has led to the pirate origin to be the most accepted aloud.
Rarity
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