Learning (was Re: SC - Recipe: Sweet and Sour Lamb)

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

And it came to pass on 27 Feb 00,, that Stefan li Rous wrote:

> Yes, before I joined this list I had little knowledge of vinegars and
> would probably have told you one was as good as another.
[snip]
> Lady Brighid, it never occurred to me that you might not have been
> aware of the different vinegars. I think this illustrates that even
> the expert cooks here can often learn from these discussions.

Everyone can learn from this list.  Not only are we all at various stages 
of learning, but the subject matter is far too broad for even the experts to 
know it all.  And I don't count myself amongst the expert cooks.  I like 
food,  I like cooking (I like eating far too much), and I like researching, 
but I am still at the stage of being a "recipe cook".  I have been head 
cook at four feasts which were well-received, but they were almost 
entirely from other people's redactions (Pleyn Delit, and the like).  So 
the redactions I've been doing in the past year have been an incredible 
learning experience.  The late period recipes go into a lot of detail, and 
often provide quantities, but there's still a lot they leave out.  And it's 
forced me to ask a lot of questions about cooking techniques and food 
chemistry and ingredients.  Melindres and bizcochos taught me a lot 
about eggs, for instance.  But it's harder to learn when you don't know 
where the gaps in your knowledge are.  Thank you, Stefan, for asking 
the question that uncovered one such gap.

I bought a bottle of the vinegar yesterday, and tasted some.  It is 
indeed, sweeter and milder.  I can see that the quantities will change in 
the next version of the lamb recipe.


Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net