[Sca-cooks] Tips on Redactions

[Philippa Alderton]

--- "Mark.S Harris" <mark.s.harris at motorola.com>
wrote:

> > This is an old argument in this group, but I think
> that is just where
> > you should not start. For one thing, that means
> that you may end up
> > adopting someone else's mistakes instead of going
> to the original
> > source and figuring things out for yourself.

> But then says:
> > Recipes rarely include quantities, temperatures,
> or times. Working
> > out a recipe consists mostly of discovering that
> information by trial
> > and error. You may find a modern cookbook useful
> in doing so. The
> > idea is not to adapt a modern recipe but to use
> the modern recipe for
> > information on how long a chicken has to be boiled
> before it is done
> > or how much salt is added to a given volume of
> stew. That gives you a
> > first guess, to be used the first time you try the
> dish and modified
> > accordingly.

 Why is
> using the
> interpretations of someone who has presumably spent
> some time
> studying period foods, as well as period recipes,
> worse than following
> a modern cook's recipe for a modern food?

I think what you are misunderstanding here, Stefan, is
what I believe to be Cariadoc's intent.

I think Cariadoc is saying to use a modern cookbook as
a jump-off point for dealing with foods in general- in
other words, to learn at what temperature, for how
long, a roast should be cooked to be medium rare, or
that a teaspoon of salt is likely more appropriate for
a pot of stew, than a cup or two ;-)

As far as following other peoples' redactions, I think
he's saying that you should look at the recipe first
with an unbiased mind, uncolored by what the previous
person has decided is either an appropriate amount, or
perhaps an appropriate ingredient.

An example might be this:

You look at the recipe, and the transcription might be
"raysens y corinthus". You might interpret this to
mean currants, as we have discussed here on Cook's
List, but someone else with a strong background in
Spanish and French might have interpreted it to mean
raisins (or grapes) and coriander. Cariadoc's idea is
for you to make your own mistakes, rather than
perpetuating someone elses.

Another example might be the lardum/bacon confusion in
the Latin texts- if you weren't aware that one recipe
specifies lardum from the leg, you might be happily
putting our modern bacon in every recipe which
translates lardum as bacon, rather than looking
closely at both the translation and the rest of the
dish, to consider options.

Phlip

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