SC - Sauce for Ras's Testicles (was Redaction)

[Elysant at aol.com]

- -Poster: <Elysant at aol.com>

> I NEVER test my recipes for a feast before I actually cook them at a 
> feast. I just read the recipe. By the time it is read I know exactly what 
it 
> will taste like when it is served. I then write down the amounts that I see 
> happening. (That is where the Science part of arts and sciences comes in.) 
> Would I recommend this to folks who are not instinctive cooks? No. Never.

The Cameline sauce I prepared for Ras's Testicles dish at Pennsic last year 
was not pre-tested.  I was asked by Ras to go to Cariadoc's Miscellany, find 
the original recipe on the page, and make the sauce.

I proceeded to do so, translating the text as I went, and after viewing the 
testicles being cooked to estimate how much sauce I would need.  Using this 
method and estimating normal or usual amounts of the spices one would use for 
such a total volume, and envisioning the taste I'd expect at the end, I was 
able to successfully re-construct the very tasty sauce directly from the 
original text and present it to my teacher in time to be poured over his 
testicles for serving at the Cook's Gathering.  

Ras's testicles have been spoken about a lot on this list, and some months 
after Pennsic people were still curious about the sauce that went over them 
so I decided I needed to write down for people the "instinctive" redaction I 
had originally done.  I found that methodically writing down the quantities 
of the ingredients used in the sauce and the method etc. much harder to do 
than just doing it from the text using basic cooking knowledge and my sense 
of taste, although I know that to complete the redaction the amounts and 
method should be written down for others to be able to replicate the dish.  
 
Elysant