Dwarven Tide-Me-Overs

Join me as I make Dwarven Tide-Me-Overs – From Tika’s Cookbook for the first time! This is a recipe from Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home sourcebook, originally released in 1987. The recipes are compiled by Tika Waylan Majere. You can buy Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/309152/Leaves-from-the-Inn-of-the-Last-Home?term=leaves+from+the+inn+of+the+last?affiliate_id=50797

From Tika’s Cookbook

Dwarven Tide-Me-Overs

These meatballs can be served as a meal on a bed of noodles. The dwarves often set them out in the center of a table during long meetings (such as war councils) that seem to drag on forever. When in need of sustenance, each dwarf spears a meatball with his knife. If the war council is going well, there are few instances of dwarves spearing their neighbors with their knives. It might be advisable for the less adventurous to use toothpicks, however. 

Meatballs:

  • 2 pounds ground beef
  • 1 pound ground veal
  • 2 pound ground pork (cave pig recommended for its flavor)
  • 1 12-ounce can evaporated milk
  • 1 cup oatmeal
  • 3 cups dried breadcrumbs
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons dehydrated onions
  • 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
  • 2 teaspoons sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon paprika
  • ½ teaspoon white pepper
  • 1 ½ teaspoon salt
  • 12 ounces water or milk

Coating:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 cups dried breadcrumbs

Gravy:

  • 1 16-ounce can commercial gravy
  • 2 10-ounce cans cream of mushroom soup
  • 1 pint sour cream
  • 3 ounces sherry (if you haven’t got dwarf spirits)

In a large bowl, mix all meatball ingredients thoroughly. Add milk or water to empty evaporated milk can to rinse it out; add enough of this liquid to meat mixture to make it sticky.

Form mixture into walnut-size balls. Roll balls into bended coating mixture. Place coated balls on lightly greased cookie trays. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Combine gravy mix and mushroom soup together, and heat it until boiling. Turn heat low, and add sour cream a little at a time, blending completely with a whisk. Add sherry last. Simmer until hot.

Arrange meatballs in a chafing dish, and pour gravy over them; speak with toothpicks. Makes approximately 200 meatballs.

Transcript

Cold Open

There is no way I can make this full recipe for my household without having significant food waste…

Intro

Today I am making Dwarven Tide-Me-Overs from Tika’s Cookbook in Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home. If you have made this recipe, share your thoughts in the comments below!

Discussion

There was no way I was going to make a full batch of this, so my plan was to cut everything in half, and with the price of veal, I decided to cut it out entirely. As the full recipe scrolls by, I will tell you what I used. One pound ground beef, one point one five pounds ground pork, approximately 6 ounces evaporated milk, one-half cup oatmeal, one and one half cups dried breadcrumbs, two eggs, one teaspoon onion flakes, one-half teaspoon parsley flakes, one teaspoon sugar, one-half teaspoon paprika, one-fourth teaspoon white pepper, one-half teaspoon salt, and six ounces of milk. I ended up only using half that. For the coating I used one cup flour and one cup dried breadcrumbs. Lastly for the gravy, I used approximately eight ounces of commercial gravy, and one ten-ounce can of cream of mushroom soup. One half pint of sour cream and on or around three ounces sherry.

I began by placing the ground beef, which was just a little frozen in the middle with the ground pork. Then add in the dry ingredients and try to mix them together with my wooden spoon. I quickly realized there was no way I was going to do this without using my hands, so I added in the remaining ingredients of evaporated milk, oatmeal, breadcrumbs, eggs, and milk and got to mixing. This created a sticky meat mixture which is exactly what I was looking for.

Next I combined the flour and breadcrumbs for the coating and set it aside in a small glass bowl. I greased a cooking sheet with some light olive oil and made massive burger sized balls out of the meat. Firstly, I didn’t want the walnut sized balls, as that would require a ton of baking on multiple sheets. And, I wanted this to be a meal not a snack. So fist sized balls it was. I formed them, then coated them, and arranged them on the sheet. Then I preheat the oven to 350 degrees and cooked them for thirty minutes on one side, and turned them over for another thirty minutes. I could have gotten away with a total of twenty minutes, but I don’t play around with raw pork, it just freaks me out, so I wanted to make sure they were cooked through.

Lastly, I made the sauce in a much bigger pan than I needed, I added the gravy and cream of mushroom soup and mixed ‘till boiling. Then I turned down the temp to a simmer and slowly folded in the sour cream. Once fully mixed I added the sherry, and cooked it til it was warm. This meant that the alcohol didn’t fully cook out, or at least I suspected it didn’t. Then I arranged the meatballs in a dish and smothered them with the sauce. It all tasted a bit bland to me, so I think if I ever make this again, I will use the full spices rather than half them, but my wife did go back for seconds so either she was hungry or she liked it. I was not impressed.

Outro

Thank you for tuning into this DragonLance Saga Recipe episode. This has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time Slàinte mhath (slan-ge-var).

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