[Sca-cooks] Tips on Redactions

[Gorgeous Muiredach]

>Why not get this same info from a good cookbook that is
>specific to period cooking? Just because a roast is
>should be cooked to "medium rare" today, doesn't mean
>that is the way it was done in period.

That's right.  And at the same time, if you have learned to cook a roast to
"medium rare", or to "well done", you know what stage these are, and will
be able to re-create them later, whether cooking "period" or not.

It comes down to having a strong handle on the techniques.  Once you have
the knowledge of what an ingredient is like when it is done to a certain
degree, you know that.  It remains with you if you cook modern, Italian,
Chinese, period, vegetarian, peri-oid, whatever...  It is usualy easier to
learn something in an environment that is more familiar to you.

>But why is a modern
>cookbook necessarily a better choice than a period one?

I don't think it is necessarily better, though I would have to agree that
it has advantages.  The main advantage I see is that it is *generaly*
closer to our own zone of comfort/knowledge.  It is easier to get a feel
for how things go when you are somewhat familiar with the concept of what
it should taste like.

If you have too many foreign elements at the same time, chances are it will
be easier to see what changes are good, and which ones don't work so well.


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