SC - Re: following faithfully

[Elaine Koogler]

No, I don't think it is.  I know from experience that versions of redactions can
vary wildly, the only exception being when the original does give
quantities...which is very rare.  I firmly believe that my version of Cormarye,
that wonderful pork roast recipe, which used the spices mentioned as ingredients
for a marinade and basting sauce, then, when reduced with juices from the
roasts, as a sauce served with the roast, is just as valid as a friend who used
the seasonings as a rub...we produced two very different versions of the same
recipe, both valid.  A mutual friend, a Laurel in cooking, said that it mainly
reflected our own personal styles in cooking meat:  he prefers the use of rubs
and I generally use marinades!

Kiri


Karen O wrote:

>     Balthazar made the statement:
>
> <<  I, on the other hand, will not blindly follow ANY written  recipe if I
> know that the end result is going to taste like swill.  >>
>
>     and Lord Ras commented:
> >I have never produced a period recipe that has tasted like 'swill' when the
> recipe was followed faithfully  . . . . I rarely deviate
> >from the written recipe and, when I do, I clearly indicate that the dish is
> period-like and not to be construed as an accurate example of the recipe. <
>
>     Something has been gnawing at the back of my brain about this.   Now
> that  *MY* (first)  feast is over,  I realize that I have a question about
> *how*  any of us can  "follow a period recipe faithfully."    There isn't  a
> sameness about any of the recipes I own  -- unless I follow my *own*
> redactions faithfully.    Take a recipe out of   /Curye on Inglysch/  like
> "to make a syrosye"  (page 90)  what is to say that your  ratios of
> cherries, butter, breadcrumbs, wine,  sugar,  and cooking time is more
> faithful to the original recipe than my interpetation?  and what kind of
> wine?  red, white, sweet, or dry?
>
> > My experience certainly does not suggest that  following any period recipe
> accurately will produce 'swill.'
>
>     From learning  what I have on this List,  it  *is* probably  "your
> experience"  that doesn't produce  swill.    The good Lord Ras know how to
> cook  & make us swoon from envy with his skills.    but,  is your rendition
> of a period recipe  (without  ratios/ numbers/ cooking methods)  more
> "correct" than mine?   Just wondering if I am missing something . . . . .
>
>     Still learning  and asking questions
>     Caointiarn
>
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