SC - Secret ingredients

[Christine A Seelye-King]

>Since cooking does not so much involve secret ingredients (e.g. all
>ingredients in period recipes are listed in the original recipes) but 
>rather the chemistry of combining those ingredients., the posting of
complete lists of ingredients does not jeapordize your "secret". Amounts
of those ingredients possibly would but I find it incomprehensible how we
are to teach  others and maintain secrecy of recipe ingredients.
>Just a thought.
>Ras

Many years ago I was first an apprentice and then a graduated
professional chef.  So it is with perfect candor that I say that (present
company excepted, I'm sure) professional cooks tend to be, oh how to say
this as nicely as possible, ego-enhanced?  I worked with such a man who
was the chef of The Abbey Restaurant in Atlanta.  When asked to give a
recipie, he always did with no hesitation.  Someone asked him about this,
and his response was "No one at home in their own kitchen will make the
dish as I do.  They may come close, but it won't be close enough, and
they will have to come back to me to cook it for them."   The point is,
every dish is going to come out slightly different with different cooks. 

	If you don't know what dishes you will use a certain combination
of ingredients in, but know that these are the things you are going to
have on hand, then list those, and if someone sees something
objectionable to them, they can ask what dishes they wound up in.  I do
think it is important to post the list, including removes if possible, so
that folks know what to expect.  One of the ladies in my household got me
doing menus for each table for all of my feasts.  She said 'You do a lot
of work researching the feast.  You should let the people know about it,
so they can appreciate what they are eating.'  An educated audience is
more appreciative.  
	
Mistress Christianna MacGrain, OP, Meridies

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