The Elder Scrolls Cookbook Volume 2 Review

If there is one thing that we don’t talk about much here at The Outerhaven, it’s cooking. From backyard BBQ chefs to the Kitchen Warriors, cooking is a big part of keeping ourselves alive to keep playing all those video games that we love so much. So when I got a chance to combine my love of cooking with video games with a chance to review The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook Volume 2: Tastes and Tales from Tamriel, I jumped at it so fast that I ended up on the back of a wagon for some reason…

Title: The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook Volume 2: Tastes and Tales from Tamriel
Author(s): Victoria Rosenthal & Erin Kwong
Publisher(s): Insight Editions
ISBN:‎ 979-8886634242
Genre: Cookbook
Language: ‎ English
Pages: 208
Publish Date: 18 September 2024

The Elder Scrolls: An Adventure in Cooking

The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook Volume 2: Tastes and Tales from Tamriel is more than a straightforward cookbook. It reads like a story from inside the world of Tamriel because it is in part. Upon reading the introduction by Urzhag gro-Larak, a chef who has traveled from High Rock to Black Marsh and everywhere in between gathering recipes from all areas and cultures, you feel like you are along for the ride as every page fills your eyes with mouth-watering examples of the meals, along with a small story about how Urzhag gro-Larak came across each dish and other moments along the way.

The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook Volume 2: Tastes and Tales from Tamriel isn’t just about cooking, it’s an adventure through the world of Tamriel through a very different set of eyes. Unlike the adventures we have had through The Elder Scrolls game series as an adventurer, seeing the world through the eyes of a chef makes everything seem fresh and wonderful, just like the first time you started one of the games in the series.

As I mentioned in my Gaming Cookbook article, I’m the house Chef. Even with my recent medical issues, I’ll still step into the kitchen and make a good meal for my family. Much like my time with the Ultimate Final Fantasy XIV Cookbook (Surprisingly, both of these books are by the same author, Victoria Rosenthal, as is much of the Gaming Cookbook article), I spent a bit of time with this book open in my kitchen working out what I would make to give this book a try.

I started things out with a few simple recipes; the first being Bubble and Squeak, something I’ve done before but this time with a bit of a twist: Duck bacon… Which I didn’t have and couldn’t afford, so I got standard bacon instead of Duck bacon. I’m sure that things would have been a lot better with Duck bacon, but sometimes you have to do with what is available, which is the best way to cook. The added challenge was something I wanted from a book like this as it is the only way for a Chef to improve their skills.

The second time around, I thought it might be easier to go with something that I could follow the recipe to the letter: Pear Sweetcakes. This was a bit outside my wheelhouse as I’m not a baker. For some reason making things go fluffy and airy doesn’t work out for me. However, thanks to following this Imperial recipe, I had a small batch of nice, fluffy, and sweet Pear Sweetcakes that my family devoured within minutes.

Noodles are a big thing in my house as I tend to favor the more Asian-inspired meals than anything else. My wife keeps telling me to submit a video of my Fried Rice to Uncle Roger for his approval… Maybe I’ll do that one day, but today it was all about making the Elsweyr Hearty Noodles (See picture below).

Once again I did not have Duck available, so I substituted Chicken instead. The smell of the Chinese 5-spice wafted through my house, dancing in the noses of everyone in the house and even making its way to my neighbor’s yards, making them curious enough to ask about what I was cooking (I smoked the chicken in my smoker instead of in the oven, which is why the smells were able to be smelt by others). I did everything else exactly like the book told me to, and with the evening meal, we had one of the best noodle soups I had made in years.

To say that The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook Volume 2: Tastes and Tales from Tamriel is going to find its way into the rotation of cookbooks I use has been approved by all the people in my household.

Not everything was positive about my time cooking using The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook Volume 2: Tastes and Tales from Tamriel. The biggest problem I had with this book, and most of the Gaming Cookbooks that I own, is that the measurements are in American Imperial Units such as Pounds (Lbs) and Fahrenheit (temperature), or have the American names of some of the items, which makes some of the dishes a bit of a pain to follow when you’re used to using Kilograms, grams (units of measure), Capsicums (Bell Pepper to you Americans) or other names, and Celcius (Temperature). The Ultimate Final Fantasy XIV Online Cookbook did a much better job by including Imperial and Metric and Fahrenheit and Celcius so people outside of the United States could cook the lovely meals contained within.

The other thing that The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook Volume 2: Tastes and Tales from Tamriel didn’t impress me with was a distinct lack of “Main Meals” in this version other than what was mixed into the stews and entrees sections. Yes, the first cookbook had a lot more in there, but there had to be some follow-up to round out the meals you could make with this edition. I have no issue with the selections, but a more well-rounded three-course meal selection without having to break out Volume 1 (Which I do not own) would have been nice.

Minimal gripes aside, I did enjoy my time cooking through Tamriel, as reading the little stories about each recipe really brought the whole book to life and gave me some insight into not only the people, cultures, and lands of Tamriel but of a fellow Chef who enjoys cooking for others as much as I do.

If you’re someone who is looking for a meal that will warm the soul on a cold night while traveling between Taverns, then The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook Volume 2: Tastes and Tales from Tamriel is going to be the cookbook that you’re going to live by while on the road. So get out that crockpot or pan, grab some local vegetables, spices, and meat; then settle in around the campfire and cook up some of these recipes… You won’t regret it.

Review Disclosure Statement: The Elder Scrolls: The Official Cookbook Volume 2: Tastes and Tales from Tamriel was provided to us by Insight Editions for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please go review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.