One crust or two, sweet or savory – you just can’t lose with a pie!

May I direct you to the wonderful discussion of Pie v Tart  by the amazing and talented chef Heath Dill?  Here it is, snuggled into his Apple Tart Recipe With Gandalf’s Rune.  His whole web site entices me – and I’ve been lucky enough to taste his wares at a Hobbit Feast!  I hope you’ll enjoy his free recipes and support his work.

• 02.060 and we might make a pie,” said Bert.
• 09.063 and a pie that did not belong to him.

From Old French estor.

• 09.011 from store or table
• 11.001 and the rest was made into a store under a tent,
• 11.002 Indeed their stores had no need of any guard,
• 11.016 and such stores
• 12.025 and all our stores lost,’
• 12.027 and bundles of stores,
• 12.033 Luckily they had saved enough of their stores
• 12.039 to go back to the store by the river
• 14.042 but great store of goods he sent ahead by water.
• 15.027 not far from where the rest of their stores had been left.
• 17.034 They had brought with them a great store of supplies;

“store, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2016. Web. 28 June 2016.

Yet another example of a word which did not seem to be a food word when I previously read past it, but is now that I’m in Chapter 8!

• 01.070 and sweet that Bilbo forgot everything else,
• 07.025 and wide stretches of short white sweet honey-smelling clover.
• 08.100 I am far more sweet than other meat,
• 13.044 and the air smelt sweeter.
• 15.033 and of sweet music;

In its first meaning, of vegetables and fruits, but in its second meaning – an its Latin origin – relevant also to animals.

• 05.048 Is it juicy?
• 08.082 but I’ll wager there is good juice inside.’
• 08.104 to see which was the juiciest to eat.

“juice, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2016. Web. 28 June 2016.

Now I finally understand a college dining commons!

at Oxford (c1891), a definite portion of victuals supplied from the college buttery or kitchen, at a regular charge…

In wider sense: Rations, allowance of victuals; daily fare.

• 8.049 even after weeks of short commons.

“commons, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2016. Web. 28 June 2016.

Wow!  The oldest meaning of “taste” is “touch”!  I kid thee not, here’s the OED.

†1. The sense of touch, feeling (with the hands, etc.); the act of touching, touch.

• 05.015 at least a tasty morsel it’d make us, gollum!’
• 08.007 it proved horrible to taste,
• 09.023 and taste the new wine that has just come in.
• 09.024 I’ll taste with you,
• 09.045 Come give us a taste of your sleeping-draught before we fall to!
• 12.062 (and taste)
• 13.009 and the taste of vapour was on his tongue.
• 15.059 and being besieged inside it was not at all to his taste.
• 19.020 I suppose this is the first taste of it.’

“taste, n.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2016. Web. 28 June 2016.

Greatly to my surprise, this is a common word, in the 4,000s of our frequency list.

a. The male of the deer, esp. of the red deer; a stag; spec. a male deer after its fifth year.

• 07.133 Sometimes Bilbo saw the horns of the harts
• 08.030 when the hart bore down on him,
• 08.032 and look for the hart,
• 08.033 a hind and fawns as snowy white as the hart had been dark.

“hart, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2016. Web. 28 June 2016.

Red, black, and white – the presence of the colourless Mirkwood deer make the common red deer (Cervus elaphus) seem less common.  All the deer are in two chapters – I wonder if we would have seen red deer in Chapter 7 if we were not about to see the others in Chapter 8.

• 07.133 of red deer browsing
• 07.134 There were no more deer;
• 08.029 Out of the gloom came suddenly the shape of a flying deer.
• 08.033 Suddenly on the path ahead appeared some white deer,
• 08.033 The deer turned
• 08.035 and the white deer that had appeared upon their path,

Well, Word Fans, sometimes it’s the integumentary organ, sometimes it’s just that used to carry potable liquid.  Be careful when counting it as a food word.

• 02.059 “not when he was skinned
• 02.080 and his skin torn,
• 05.016 The hobbit jumped nearly out of his skin
• 05.087 in a pouch next his skin,
• 06.078 till hair smells and skins crack,
• 06.099 he was not much good at skinning rabbits
• 07.021 when he doesn’t turn their skins into squirrels?’ asked Bilbo.
• 07.022 He changes his skin:
• 07.126 I will provide you with skins for carrying water,
• 08.008 and filled some of their emptied skins at its bank.
• 08.082 What nasty thick skins they have to be sure,
• 08.110 and skin hanging on a tree.
• 12.081 right down to the skin.

“skin, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2016. Web. 28 June 2016.