I’ve seen a few LOTR forums which vary in their assessment of what the ingredients are supposed to be; some say fish, others say some kind of animal fat, plus some random greens. Has anyone been able to confirm what is in that stew?
Confirm, no. But it always looked like fish heads to me.
Eat 'em up, yum!
How can anyone “confirm” something that was made up for the movie only? It’s not like there was any source material to refer to for a more in-depth understanding. :mad:
Well, the movie’s prop designers were presumably trying for something specific.
WHAT ‘stew’?
It looked like fish to me (but not fish heads - no eyes were visible). So I’m going to guess lutefisk.
This stew. Movie only, not the books, but it establishes something that is otherwise only present in the Appendices - that Aragorn is very long lived, and has been fighting wars in Middle Earth for a few generations.
I think it was some kind of raw-ish fish as well - there was a lake in the background so the refugee column may have caught some fish during their stop. Either that or a prop. Note that in the clip, Aragorn puts it in his mouth, then they cut to Eowyn, then back to Aragorn swallowing. So Viggo probably just spit it out anyway.
ETA: I’ll pop in the bluray tonight & turn on the commentary tracks - IIRC they have like 5 different tracks on each movie, maybe one of them talked about what was in the stew.
Possibly some sort of salted dried fish (provisions for a long journey) reconstituted in a stew. Of course exactly what it is isn’t really important, it’s just comic relief (royal warrior babe is a terrible cook, not even a dwarf would eat her cooking) and an opportunity to reveal that Aragorn is a long-lived Dunedain.
Yeah, I think it could be meant to be something lutefisk-like. And that makes more sense than animal fat, since as noted fish would be more readily at hand. I’ll take another look later.
It’s been a while since I watched it last, but I just viewed the YouTube link and don’t recall that scene at all. Huh.
Lutefisk pretty much dissolves if you cook it too long. Not a good starting point for stew.
Extended version only. Not in the theatrical release.
That was mostly a joke, since lutefisk is largely regarded as inedible by non-Scandinavians. Since the dried form requires soaking for several days to become even somewhat edible, it would be unlikely to be used for camping rations.
Since there’s a lake in the background it could very well be fresh fish made inedible by Eowyn’s inexpert cooking. Actually the Rohirrim as horsemen wouldn’t be expected to have a lot of experience cooking fish.
You know, what you put taters in.
Joking is well and good, but lets not promote ignorance. 
“The dried form” is just dried cod and has many uses, including many forms of “bacalao”, Iberian fish stews. Not a camping ration, but not considered inedible either.
And while all use of dried cod requires a long soaking, lutefisk is specifically the result of adding a step at the end of soaking the fish in lye, and then again in water to get rid of all the lye.
Oh, I don’t know about that. In all of Tolkien’s long life of writing on details and minutia, I wouldn’t be surprised if an essay exists somewhere about “popular stews of Rohan.”
Looks like soggy fat to me. Fatty salt pork (which is a good meat for portability), dumped into a vegie stew, would probably look like this.
Aragorn is 87 years old when he joins Frodo et al. He turns 88 just a few days before the Battle of Helm’s Deep. Yeah, he’s seen a few things. 
And tasted a few, too.