[Sca-cooks] Tips on Redactions

[Olwen the Odd]

>Master Cariadoc said:
> > >The obvious place to start is try several
> > >medieval recipes that are already redacted/adapted
> > >be they from printed cookbooks or the web.
> >
> > 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.
>
>I can't remember whom Cariadoc is quoting above, but it pretty much
>parallels what I said in another message.
>
>If the problem is adapting someone else's mistakes, why is it worse
>to pick up a modern cook's mistakes cooking modern food than a
>modern cook's mistakes interpreting period food?
>
>I don't think either I nor this person quoted were saying to
>slavishly follow the proportions given in the redaction. However, like
>the use of a similar modern recipe, it does often give a better place
>to start than just wildly guessing, which is what some of us would
>otherwise be doing. In either case you take a chance on bringing
>modern assumptions into the period recipe and thus "coloring" the
>final recipe with aspects from the present. 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?
>
>Yes, there can be bad period recipe interpretations, just as there
>are bad modern recipes. Cosman and her recipes in Fabulous Feasts
>being a prime example of poor interpetations. I'm sure there are
>modern equivalents, but I don't try to remember those. I think it
>is better to try to find a good recipe resource for either style rather
>than start from scratch, at least unless you are an expert cook.
>
>Stefan li Rous

This brings to mind an old joke about a young monk who gets assigned to a
mission to pen copies of holy text and finds he is making copies of copies.
When he asks the monk in charge why they aren't transcribing the origianls.
The old monk thinks about it and decides it is a good idea so goes to fetch
some of them.  Hours later when he doesn't return others go to look for him.
  They find him sitting on the floor crying hysterically pointing to the
manuscript and muttering "It says celebrate!"
Olwen, who agrees one should begin at the beginning

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