[Sca-cooks] Changing subjects

[johnna holloway]

I'm up for a serious discussion. So what shall
we discuss? How about Jacqui Wood's new book on
Prehistoric Cooking? What about The Culture of the
Fork? Too bad about that one. Let's see who has already
read Albala's latest. I thought the title was a
bit trite. (Eating Right in the Renaissance) seems to be
a bit funny and the cataloguing under just
Gastronomy and Food Habits--Europe seems to miss the
point that the work is on diet and humoral practice.
And did everyone see the fascinating little sentence
in Fast and Famine where Scottish immigrants in County
Down were granted permission to grow potatoes and
flax in 1606? Has anyone read Joan Alcock yet?

The point of the above paragraph is that some of us
can readily discuss such things, but it requires
time and money to have these resources at hand and at
the ready. How many of us actually buy everything that
comes out in food history and culinary history? I will
freely admit that I read cookery and I buy week in and
week out, but I do not expect everyone to spend as much
I do or collect as freely as I do or have the time to
read as I do.

Would you like to start a book of the month club for serious
chat regarding a topic? Or shall we allow subjects to
continue to arrive in our mailboxes? I handle this list
as a reference librarian might handle questions coming in
from the general public. Some topics are more serious than
others and some are just conversations between the community
members.

As to the cookbook library that was offered, I can say
that as a librarian who collects in this field, and who
had all but three of the works mentioned (No, I didn't
have the one pies the limit or the 2 cheese titles...)
I thought it was a bit ingenious to offer his Grace's
collection and record it as this or that "book" when
it was just a part of the whole work. One entry would have
done nicely for all those subsets. Also it wasn't noted
as to what the microfilm printoffs were printed on as regards
to the paper. Were they plain paper copies or slick-paper copies?
How were they stored? (Mine from the '80s are in great shape
but I store mine in an archival acid free box in the dark)
And as regards the Pynson volume of 1500, the citation is just wrong.
Those who heard my session at Cookscon in January already
know that I own another microfilm of that work that is
not a UMI copy. So there---

Does that answer your question?

Johnnae llyn Lewis   Johnna Holloway


Terry Decker wrote:>
> So kick out a topic for serious discussion, that's the way to get things> going.> Bear
>
> >How about a return to sanity> >
> >Akim