[Sca-cooks] Following a recipe... rambling...

[Mark.S Harris]

Anne asked:
> If I write a recipe for myself, it
> is pretty sketchy. If I write it for anyone else, it has more detail, if
> I write it for an inexperienced cook, I'll describe browning onions...

Hmmm. Maybe not as obvious example as you think. "Cook's Illustrated",
at least I think that is the name, has a complete article on
caramelizing
onions in their February issue. This is the cooking magazine that got
high reviews on this list recently. I bought a copy while at Barnes &
Nobles recently. Very interesting and practical. Not just a bunch
of flashy things like I see in some of the other cooking magazines.
Thanks folks for pointing me to this. I may subscribe to this one.

> Are we doing our own redactions, or starting with someone else's? I,
> as a beginner, want to start with another's redaction. But if I do that,
> do I perpetuate someone else's misreading, and miss the glorious
> opportunity to misread it myself?

Yes, an often re-occuring question here. While I often have no idea of
where to start with many recipes, and need another's redactions for
at least the initial proportions, I like to have the original recipe
so I can see what changes may have been made. What happened to the
Grains of Paradise mentioned in the original recipe? No, I think
pecans are a lousy substitute for almonds in this recipe, etc.

> A while ago, on the Historic costume list, we had a thread about that
> book we all want published - "Hey, Lady, Turn Around!" in which the
> people in paintings would all cooperatively turn around, open jackets,
> let us see lacings and underpinnings... Our equivalent is even harder,
> because it would have to be fully interactive. "Sir, Would You Taste
> This?" In which Real Medieval People, of various periods and places,
> would kindly taste our concoctions, and tell us what they thought.
> Bearing in mind that a 15th Century Italian nobleman probably had a
> different idea of delicious food than a 10th Century Flemish farmer...
> (Which do you think would have liked the jello mold? We can't even tell
> you what all 21st century Americans like!)

Yes, something to be concerned with. Lest we get overconfident, take
a look at this article on what the future might come up with in
interpreting descriptions of disco dancing, for example, check out
this article in the Florilegium:
dance-par-art     (12K)  1/20/92    What the future might think of 20th
dance.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/DANCE/dance-par-art.html

While written as a parody, I think it should give us pause if we
start to think that a period individual would not find aspects of
our feasts or our re-creations of period food unusual.

Stefan