[Sca-cooks] Tips on Redactions

[Stefan li Rous]

Artemisia asked:
> 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.

Part of this will depend on how good a cook you already are. Do you
already have an idea of the appropriate amount of spicing to use in
a particlar dish? Are you familar with the approximate temperature to
bake something? etc. Generally I am not, although I'm gradually
learning some of this stuff.

We have had some discussions on doing redactions here previously. You
might find this file to be useful, although hardly comprehensive:
Redacting-art     (10K)  7/ 3/00    "The Kitchen Wench Way: Redacting Recipes"
                                       by Caointiarn.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD/Redacting-art.html
redacting-msg     (25K)  9/23/01    Changing period recipes into modern format.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD/redacting-msg.html

> 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.

Then perhaps starting with Asian food might help. The other thing I
might recommend is to start with some of the medieval European
recipes that have been already redacted by book authors or others
on this list. Try redacting from the original yourself and then
compare yours to theirs. Yours may still end up tasting better or
be more accurate, but by doing this you can see where the differances
are and then investigate those.

--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas          stefan at texas.net
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****