One cake of lembas can sustain a tall man of Minas Tirith for a full day’s march. Last time I decided that this must make lembas 6,000+ calories per wafer, and discovered that it’s impossible to get to 6,000 calories on carbs alone (unless you allow the lembas wafer to be the size of a birthday cake). Today we’ll see whether adding some fat to the recipe could get us closer to a march-sustaining meal.
Image: GameRant
To review:
On to fats!
Fats are pretty fascinating. Here’s a good link for those who like food science. Bakery products (like biscuits or croissants) use fats that are solid at room temperature (like butter, shortening, or lard) so the fat will melt and leave airy, fluffy goodness when the pastries bake. Fats used in ice cream need to be at least half-solid at freezing temperature but melt well below mouth temperature. Frying fats need a high oxidation temperature.
But what about calories? If you had a gram of pure fat, it would give you 9 calories, but some “fats” aren’t pure fat in the nutritional sense, and grams of one substance might take up more room than a gram of another substance. We want to find the most dense fat possible – how many calories can you possibly cram into a 1-cup, lembas-sized volume?
Well, here are some common “healthy” fats:
Calories / gram:
None of these are very close to 9 calories per gram. They’re not “pure” fat. How about some fattier fats?
Calories / gram:
Now we’re getting somewhere. Lard and tallow (the pork and beef versions of rendered animal fat) are the most calorie-dense fats per gram. But what about grams per volume? What takes up the least amount of room?
Gram / TBSP (density):
Tallow is both the densest fat (most grams per tablespoon) and most calorie dense fat (most calories per gram), so it’s looking like our most likely candidate for a hearty lembas loaf. How many calories do we get per cup?
Here’s a graph:
- No one knows how big a lembas bread cake really was, but the good book says they were “very thin cakes” and the movies make them look about palm-sized, so I’m giving them a generous volume of 1 cup (a 6-inch circle half an inch thick).
- Carbs and protein both have 4 calories per gram, while fat has 9 calories per gram.
- The most calorie-dense carb I could find was honey, which only gives you about 1,000 calories per cup (even if you could find a way to make a cake from pure honey).
On to fats!
Fats are pretty fascinating. Here’s a good link for those who like food science. Bakery products (like biscuits or croissants) use fats that are solid at room temperature (like butter, shortening, or lard) so the fat will melt and leave airy, fluffy goodness when the pastries bake. Fats used in ice cream need to be at least half-solid at freezing temperature but melt well below mouth temperature. Frying fats need a high oxidation temperature.
But what about calories? If you had a gram of pure fat, it would give you 9 calories, but some “fats” aren’t pure fat in the nutritional sense, and grams of one substance might take up more room than a gram of another substance. We want to find the most dense fat possible – how many calories can you possibly cram into a 1-cup, lembas-sized volume?
Well, here are some common “healthy” fats:
Calories / gram:
- Avocado: 2
- Peanut: 6
- Cheese: 1-4
- Egg yolk: 3
- Chia seeds: 4.8
- Whole-milk yogurt: 0.6
None of these are very close to 9 calories per gram. They’re not “pure” fat. How about some fattier fats?
Calories / gram:
- Coconut oil: 8.62
- Crisco: 8.84
- Olive oil: 8.84
- Animal fat: 8.97
- Bacon fat: 8.98
- Corn oil: 9.00
- Lard: 9.02
- Tallow: 9.02
Now we’re getting somewhere. Lard and tallow (the pork and beef versions of rendered animal fat) are the most calorie-dense fats per gram. But what about grams per volume? What takes up the least amount of room?
Gram / TBSP (density):
- Coconut oil: 13.7
- Crisco: 12.1
- Olive oil: 13.6
- Animal fat: 13.9 (max)
- Bacon grease: 12.9
- Corn oil: 13.6
- Lard: 13.0
- Tallow: 14.0
Tallow is both the densest fat (most grams per tablespoon) and most calorie dense fat (most calories per gram), so it’s looking like our most likely candidate for a hearty lembas loaf. How many calories do we get per cup?
Here’s a graph:
*Blue is calculated using Calories/gram x gram/tablespoon x tablespoon/cup. Orange is directly Googled.
There’s some variation depending on whether you Google calories per gram and grams per tablespoon or Google calories per cup directly, but the big picture is clear:
There’s some variation depending on whether you Google calories per gram and grams per tablespoon or Google calories per cup directly, but the big picture is clear:
Even if lembas were pure fat, a single 6-inch x ½-inch cake couldn’t be more than 2,000 calories
Let’s graph that next to the 6,000 calories a tall man of Minas Tirith would need for a full day’s march:
So there you have it – lembas needs some magical properties in the tune of 4,000+ magical calories to be as nutritious as it is. No wonder the elves keep the recipe secret!
Legend has it that these magical properties come from a special, secret corn -see Alice Rose Dodds’ post here for details.
Next time I’ll have a recipe for the most calorie-dense-but-still-edible cake of lembas bread my wife can come up with. For now, connect with me on Facebook or Twitter for more updates and check out my fantasy novels here.
Legend has it that these magical properties come from a special, secret corn -see Alice Rose Dodds’ post here for details.
Next time I’ll have a recipe for the most calorie-dense-but-still-edible cake of lembas bread my wife can come up with. For now, connect with me on Facebook or Twitter for more updates and check out my fantasy novels here.