Welcome back, Geeky Gluttons, to another episode of Munchies & Minis!
For those just joining us, Munchies & Minis is my Dungeons & Dragons and tabletop RPG-inspired live cooking show. Once a week, I make a snack or meal to pair with a side of dice rolls. You can catch me on Twitch or Facebook Live (unless indicated otherwise on social media) Wednesday nights at 7 pm EST.
This past week I posted the video for a beer-battered, french toasted pancake recipe inspired by Jak-a’-Napes pub from Paizo’s Pathfinder. This week’s video, we return to Dungeons & Dragons for some bison meatloaf with some American Indian culinary influences.
A Prairie Home Companion
The source behind today’s recipe, Buffaloaf with Honeyed Corn, comes from the “Inns in an Instant” article from Dragon Magazine, issue 418, from December 2012. This article provides DMs with tables to create last-minute taverns and inns, from names and descriptions to innkeepers and menus within a few simple dice-rolls. You can find the article on Scribd (free with a 30-day trial). I recommend downloading it as it is an invaluable resource for a DM whose players are hungry for details.
What I especially love about this article, though, is how the tavern’s location categorizes the food tables. In a city restaurant, you can serve up some Braised Beef with Ginger and Pears, or baked goat flank in a mountain inn. Your players can grab a pint of crowberry cider while feasting on reindeer ribs on the frozen tundra. Or they could even try some frog legs and bulrush stems while passing through a swamp village’s local pub.
For today’s post, though, we traverse into the territory of the Plains table with a recipe for Buffaloaf and Honeyed Corn. Admittedly, meatloaf is more modern American than Native American. But consider this a chance to expand what this cultural style looks like in a D&D campaign. What would a pub in a Native American-styled city serve? What would be considered middle or upper-class cuisine?
The table references multiple bison dishes as well as blue corn dumplings and the suggested pairing of pumpkin cider. I wanted to go a little further, though. Researching more into indigenous cuisine and ingredients of the North American Great Plains turned up cranberries and wild rice as staple foods. I then found that herbs such as wild onions, tarragon, sage, and mustard also seasoned their way through all of these dishes.
So, taking this all into account, I made up my Buffaloaf recipe with all of these indigenous ingredients for a regional taste of the summer plains. Feel free to serve this up with some mashed sweet potatoes and hard apple cider. Or even melt some cheese over leftover slices for a killer Buffaloaf Sandwich.
Want to learn how to make Buffaloaf and Honeyed Corn for your adventuring party? Watch the video or find out how to get the recipe card below!
Buffaloaf & Honeyed Corn
Get the Recipe!
This video will always be around to cook along with. But I also have the printable PDF recipe card available for my Ko-Fi and Patreon supporters.
This week both my blog post and Munchies & Minis recipe cards are available in exchange for a $2 donation on my Ko-fi page.
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If you join my Patreon community at the “Kitchen Twitch” ($5/month) level or higher, you will not only get access to ALL of my Munchies & Minis recipe cards. You’ll also get blog-post Spotify-playlists, community-polls, random digital and physical-swag surprises, AND a welcome gift of my Lord of the Rings recipe cards and playlists.
I hope that this episode inspired you to start a culinary campaign of your own. Next week, I’ll be continuing the second season of Munchies & Minis with a recipe chosen by my Patreon subscribers!
Make sure to join me live Wednesday on Twitch or Facebook from 7 pm – 9 pm EST. OR you can catch the archived episode on YouTube.
