SC - Cookery-Art or Science (Instinct)

[LrdRas at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/28/99 7:25:29 AM Eastern Standard Time, Clay at talstar.com
writes:

<< I find that if I just think of ingredients together I literally will be
able to
 taste same.  >>

This is how it is with me also. I read a recipe and by the time I have
finished with the directions , I know exactly how it will taste as a finished
product. The nice thing about this is that you can adjust any problem in the
recipe BEFORE you actually prepare it. It makes for a lot less 'yucky' end
results and the greatest advantage is that I don't need to waste anything to
know whether a recipe is good or not.

This ability is particularly handy when reading the recipes we deal with in
the SCA which for the most part consist of directions with no quantities. By
the time you finish reading the recipe description , you have a fairly good
idea of what amounts of what to use.

There are some exceptions though. A few years back, I did an article for our
local newsletter which took the reader on a step by step redaction journey.
The recipe was a chicken recipe. I don't remember exactly which one. IIRC, it
was from Apicius. Anyway, the results were fun. I provided 3 possible
redactions for this recipe: a pottage, a custard like dish and croquettes. 

All were tasty when tried and all followed the original exactly. This shows
that one redaction is not necessarily more accurate than another if the
directions available are followed exactly and certainly humbles a person when
they realize that their one way may not be  the provably 'true' way.:-) 

Of course, this does not allow for the exclusion of steps or the substitution
of new world igredients, which processes can always be said to NOT produce an
accurate period rendition of a particular recipe. 

Ras
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