Precooking? (was Re: SC - questions/kinda long, sorry)

[david friedman]

At 11:38 AM -0400 6/17/00, Nick Sasso wrote:

>I don't imagine in my personal little picture of medieval life that
>cooks in the Lord's kitchen would do too terrible much precooking for
>the same reason I don't . . . economy.

I would have assumed that when a period cook was cooking a feast, the 
dishes would usually be ones that he had made dozens of times before. 
After all, he, unlike us, is living his entire life in the Middle 
Ages. And the first time he made them, it would have been under the 
instruction of an older cook who had made them dozens of times before.

I can imagine a situation where a cook heard about some novel dish 
that had been served at a feast somewhere else--in which case, unless 
the dish had to be done on a large scale, I would think he would try 
it out first for himself. But that's just a guess.

I don't see that avoiding trials provides any economy. We all have to 
eat, after all, and making chicken covered with walnuts for dinner 
last night cost us less than going out to a restaurant and no more 
than making a modern dish. It also got us a more satisfactory 
redaction of that recipe. Along similar grounds, the professional 
cook could try the unfamiliar dish first in a small quantity for an 
informal dinner or something.

On the other hand, having to throw out a dish prepared for fifty 
people because you have never done it before and something didn't 
work is a pretty serious cost, for us or them.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/