George R.R. Martin to Game of Thrones fans: Indulge in King Robert’s Crown Roast

On May 7, author Chelsea Monroe-Cassel’s The Official Game of Thrones Cookbook arrives to bookstores, offering 80 recipes culled from across the Seven Kingdoms. In his foreword for the book, A Song of Ice and Fire creator George R.R. Martin heartily endorses Monroe-Cassel’s documentation of the delicacies that range from Dothraki to Dornish, and goes a step further, making the case for why he’s a fan of indulging in the “gratuitous.” Read on for Martin’s words, debuting exclusively on Polygon, and a recipe for a roast worthy of the writer’s filling tomes.

A Taste of Westeros

Are you hungry again?

Good. This is just the book for you: a cookbook full of recipes from the world of Westeros, the setting for A Song of Ice & Fire, Fire & Blood, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and my other epic fantasies.

Over a decade ago, we gave you the first official cookbook, A Feast of Ice & Fire, with recipes from all of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and a few of the lands beyond. That was very well received, so here we are again. Make no mistake; that book is not this book. You cannot eat the same thing every day, so Chelsea Monroe-Cassel has returned with all new dishes, compiled with the aid of Maester Alton—a food-obsessed maester of the Citadel, who has wandered through the realms and throughout history, collecting recipes from both high tables and low.

They certainly tempt me. I don’t cook . . . but I do eat. That much I have in common with my characters. Rich or poor, old or young, male or female, maester or mummer, highborn or low, we all need to eat . . . and what we eat can say a lot about us.

There is a lot of food in my novels. Everything from wedding feasts with seventy-seven courses to that horse’s heart that Daenerys Targaryen wolfed down. Too much food, certain critics are wont to complain. The word they like to trot out is gratuitous. Uncalled for, unnecessary, unwarranted, just too damn much. My great big fat novels would not be nearly so big and fat if only I would cut out all the gratuitous feasting, the gratuitous violence, the gratuitous heraldry, and of course the gratuitous sex (that is usually the biggest complaint).

To which I say, pfui.

Image: Random House

When used in the context of literary criticism, “gratuitous” usually translates to “more than I wanted” or “did not advance the plot.” And you know, often that is true. Was it necessary for me to mention that the minor knight who just entered the lists bore seven golden hedgehogs on a field of dark green? In that sex scene, couldn’t I just have tumbled them into bed and cut to “the next morning”? And the feasts, oh those feasts, surely the only thing that mattered was what the characters were saying, not the honey-roasted duck they were eating as they said it?

Well, no. Not for me.

It’s not the destination that matters to me, it’s the journey. I have been a voracious reader for as long as I can remember. A reader of fiction, specifically. Fiction is not about getting from point A to point B as fast as possible. It can educate, but it is not educational at heart. For that, nonfiction is infinitely superior. Fiction is about emotion. The heart, not the head. Fiction gives us vicarious experience. It takes us beyond ourselves and the world around us.

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies,” I said once. “The man who never reads lives only one.” I grew up in the projects of Bayonne, New Jersey. Our family was working-class and poor. We didn’t even own a car. We never went anywhere. But I had books. Books that took me to Paris and London, to Barsoom and Trantor and Middle-earth, to Ancient Rome and the Hyborian Age and Chicago in the Roaring Twenties. I danced at Gatsby’s parties, climbed Mount Everest (and Mount Doom) and the Cliffs of Insanity. I loved and lost, I loved and won, I kissed a thousand fair maids, I climbed a scaffold with Sydney Carton and did a far, far better thing than I had ever done.

Of course, I never did any of those things, not really. I only read about them. The experiences we have in books cannot possibly compare with the experiences of “real life.” Real life is certainly more intense . . . when we are living it. When we are immersed in the moment, with all of our senses working. Yes, certainly.

Afterward, though—the next day, the next year, ten years later—perceptions can change. I was twelve or thirteen when I passed through the Mines of Moria with Gandalf and the Fellowship, but I still remember that experience vividly. An experience I never had. Yet I could not tell you what room I was in when I read those words, what day it was, whether I was in bed or in a chair, whether it was summer or winter, who my teacher was that year. It is Moria I remember, Moria that shaped me.

I love nothing more than opening a new book and falling through the pages. The tales that I love best are totally immersive. That’s what I aspire to provide to my own readers as well. I want them to see the colors of the knights’ surcoats in the tournament. I want them to hear the clash of steel on steel when swords cross, to hear the shrieks of dying men on the battlefield. If a song is sung, I want them to hear the words, get a sense of the rhythm. I want them to remember the sunsets, to glimpse fireflies in the dusk, to feel the heat of the dragon’s fire. I want them to live my story, not just read it. When they sit down at my table, I want them to taste the food.

Nothing is gratuitous, as I see it. It is all part of the experience. If the plot is all that matters to you, well, there are Cliff’s Notes you can read in a tenth the time.

Me, I will stay with novels—the richer and more immersive the better.

I hope you’ll enjoy cooking the dishes within these pages. And I hope the taste of them will take you back to the first time you tasted them in the pages of A Game of Thrones or A Storm of Swords or (one day, I hope) The Winds of Winter. Pass the mead, please, and have a slice of dragon-roasted goat.

Crown Roast of Boar’s Ribs

Image: Random House

Reprinted from The Official Game of Thrones Cookbook by Chelsea Monroe-Cassel

Makes: 1 roast of about 4 servings
Prep: 30 minutes
Cooking: 2 hours
Pairs well with: Riverlands Creamed Leeks; Hippocras

There is a saying in Westeros: Heavy is the head that wears the crown. But heavy also is the feast table that bears this impressive centerpiece. Crown Roast was a specialty of the head cook in the Red Keep in the early days of King Robert’s reign. He was called Oswyn, and he was good enough to speak with me at great length about the demands and opportunities inherent in feeding a royal household. I heard his account of expansive versions of this dish made with aurochs ribs — roasts so huge a grown man could stand in them with room to spare. The recipe below is a much more reasonable size, suitable for an intimate dinner or for making an impression on a small party of guests.

As a son of the stormlands, King Robert generally preferred venison or boar to aurochs. This hearty roast is ideal cold weather fare, with a dense oaten stuffing laced with bacon and fruit. The meat slow cooks until it just about falls from the bones in a delicious heap. The spice blend dances over the roast, pairing beautifully with both the crisped bacon and the rib meat. Each bite of the soft stuffing that fills the hollow crown hides small bites of apple and onion kissed by herbs. It is a splendid meal that leaves one sated and happy.

1 rack (about 4 pounds) boar or pork ribs
1½ tablespoons Freehold Spice Blend (see below), or spice rub of your choice
About 5 uncooked bacon strips

STUFFING:

2 cups rolled oats, soaked for 30 minutes and drained
¼ cup dried currants
About 3 uncooked bacon strips
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 yellow onion, diced small
½ apple, cored and diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ cup chicken or beef stock
2 slices stale bread, torn into small pieces

Image: Random House

➸ Preheat the oven to 375°F.

➸ Using a sharp knife, carefully trim away the meat from the top 1 to 2 inches of the ribs and set the scraps aside to use later. Curve the rack of ribs around itself and set upright with the bulk of the meat at the bottom. Secure the ends together either with toothpicks or by tying some kitchen twine around the whole roast. Dust the inside and outside of the meat with the spice blend. Wrap several strips of bacon around the circumference of the roast, then place it on a large, rimmed baking sheet. Set aside while you prepare the stuffing.

➸ To make the stuffing, pour the oats and currants into a medium saucepan and cover with several inches of water. Set over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cook for about 15 minutes, until the oats have softened. Drain and transfer the oat mixture to a large mixing bowl.

➸ While the oats cook, mince the scraps of meat trimmed from the roast. Fry the bacon and the minced meat together in a medium frying pan over medium heat until the bacon is crispy. Drain the meat, reserving a bit of the fat in the pan for later. Allow the meats to cool before crumbling the bacon and adding both meats to the oats.

➸ In the same pan you used to cook the bacon, melt the butter with the remaining bacon fat over medium heat. Add the onion, apple, and garlic and cook for several minutes, until the onion is soft and fragrant. Turn down the heat and add the herbs, followed by the stock. Stir for a minute, then remove from the heat and add to the oat mixture along with the bread. Mix everything together thoroughly.

➸ Press the stuffing into the center of the crown roast atop the baking sheet, making a little dome in the middle of the stuffing. Cover with aluminum foil and move the roast to the oven. Cook for around 2 hours, until the bacon is crisp and the meat ready to fall from the bones. About 20 minutes before the end of the cooking time, remove the foil to allow the stuffing to brown a little.

➸ To serve, snip away the twine, cut the roast vertically into chops, and plate the chops with some of the stuffing.

Chelsea’s Note The stuffing used here can also be prepared on its own as a side. Simply bake in a large casserole dish for around 30 minutes at 350°F until cooked through and browning on top, stirring occasionally to avoid any overly crispy bits.

Freehold Spice Blend

Makes: About 2½ tablespoons
Prep: 5 minutes

1½ tablespoons smoked paprika
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground sumac
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon chili powder

➸ Mix together the spices and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months; the potency of the spices will fade over time, so the blend is best when reasonably fresh.

The Official Game of Thrones Cookbook is out on May 7.

The Official Game of Thrones Cookbook

• $35

Prices taken at time of publishing.

• $35 at Amazon
• $33 at Bookshop
• $35 at Target