[Sca-cooks] Tips on Redactions

[Gorgeous Muiredach]

At 12:28 PM 1/16/2002, you wrote:
>Hello All!
>
>I'm interested in taking period recipes and figuring them out (doing
>redactions for them...that's the correct term, right?).  Just wondering if
>you all have any tips that make figuring out the recipes easier?  Not just
>the language, but how many of X, how long to cook it, etc.  What should I
>keep in mind when I do things?  Any sort of helpful hint to a new cook like
>me, would be greatly appreciated.

I think the best way to start is to get a solid understanding of basic
cooking techniques.  A while back I made a post on those techniques, it may
be floating around, if not, I can probably find it and send again.

Alternatively, taking a class at a community college might be a good idea.

The reason I'm suggesting this is that there is more to cooking than
recipes <wink>...  Seriously, once you understand why ingredients react the
way they do when cooked in different ways, you'll be able to get a better
idea of what the expected result is likely to be, hence be able to analyse
the recipes better.

>I plan on working with some of the online scanned texts (like the Booke of
>Cookery) and POSSIBLY the Soup for the Qan.  I think the Soup for the Qan
>would probably be easier for me since I understand asian cooking a bit
>better than european cooking.

That's a good start.  In the end though, all cooking types can be "slotted"
within a few types.  Again, once you understand what happens to your
ingredients based on the type of cooking you use, you can handle any and
all recipe type... :-)

Of course, your mileage may vary :-)


Gorgeous Muiredach
Rokkehealden Shire
Middle Kingdom
aka
Nicolas Steenhout
"You must deal with me as I think of myself" J. Hockenberry