[Sca-cooks] Redact?

[Decker, Terry D.]

I tend to use the word adaptation as being more correct for what I do, but
let's consider redaction.

Redaction enters our lexicon with the meaning of "preparing a dish and
docuimentation from a historic recipe without precise proportions or
instructions" because it describes the work of the culinary historians and
historical cooks who translated, transcribed, annotated and prepared modern
adaptations of the recipes for publication.

Is the meaning valid?  For what we do, properly we present the original
recipe, noting the source.  Then we provide a translation and transcription
(which may have been done by another writer).  Then we prepare the dish and
provide our annotated version of the recipe, which is original (we hope),
but a derivative work from one or more earlier works.  We then publish our
work in a newsletter, or online, or by merely write it down.  Since our work
is actually an expansion and annotation of an earlier work, our work is
closer to that of an editor than an author, so redaction is probably valid
in this context.

Using redaction to describe the preparation of the dish is more
questionable, but possibly within ken.  The root of act and redact is the
Latin "agere" which means "to drive" or "do."  An act is the process of
doing or something which has been done.  To redact is to edit or redo.  In
preparing a historical dish, we are redoing it based upon a usually
incomplete recipe which we edit to prepare our version of the dish.  In
short, our dish is an edited version of the original.  As I said, I prefer
adaptation, but the word redaction may be correct, based on usage.

Bear



> It's late, and I'm on overtime.  I'm sitting here waiting to
> file some papers
> with the court, and some of the documents contain
> confidential information.  So
> I redact that information.
>
> And then I start thinking about the word, "redact."  We use
> it for our recipes,
> but in the words of Inigo Montoya, "I don't think it means
> what you think it
> means."  The dictionary says:
>
> 1.  To draw up or frame (a proclimation, for example).  2.
> To prepare for
> publication; edit or revise.
>
> So are we really redacting when we take a period recipe and
> write it out in a
> familiar, modern format?  It's not really editing -- the new
> recipe is an
> original work, isn't it?  My version is almost never going to
> be identical to
> anyone else's.  Is translate a better word?  What else is there?
>
> Rose