SC - Documented Substitutions (Long)

[LrdRas at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/1/00 2:27:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
oftraquair at hotmail.com writes:

<< I'd have multiple sources and look for the defining elements or 
 what seems to be the best examples explaining the different steps and use 
 this information to create something that is within the category, rather 
 than recreate any particular recipe exactly. >>

Understandable but, in my experience the sources I am familiar with were 
written years apart. Comparing the documents may well produce a good generic 
dish but not one which would have been served in any of the times from which 
each of the manuscripts were written.

A modern example is preserved hams. The way they cooked it 100 years ago is 
infinitely superior in flavor to the most common modern method of preparation 
yet each recipe, Victorian and modern, is the same name 'Baked Ham' and has 
many elements in common. A synthesis of the two recipes produces a very nice 
dish but it is not a known way of doing things in either time.

While such an approach is not itself a 'bad' thing, calling the resulting 
dish historically authentic would be deceptive and inaccurate.

Ras