[Sca-cooks] originals and redactions, was "All the King's Cooks"

[Sue Clemenger]

No, not really. As someone who spends more time, actually, doing and
judging period needlework and costuming than food, I'd not expect to see
a written  blow-by-blow description of making the stitches.  I would,
however, expect to see diagrams of the stitches (especially any unusual
ones), and a discussion of what that individual went through to copy the
pattern from the portrait.  Or some discussion about the steps undergone
to recreate a particular garment.  Even in such a case (a pretty close
equivalent to doing a redaction from a recipe), there is room for
interpretation--was the design chartable? were there places where
adjustments needed to be made? is the design reversible and if so, why?
why the particular choice of stitches? Why a counted linen and silk
thread? Why linen? It's a way, as well, for the entrant to show me that
he or she did their own work, instead of just using someone else's and
passing it off as their own (i.e., using a published redaction but not
mentioning it, or using someone's published pattern of the Queen Jane
sleeves and only mentioning that the pattern was taken from the
portrait--and yes, people do do this).
It's not the judges' skills that are in question, after all, but the
entrants' skills.  Redactions, descriptions of processes, etc. are all
handy tools for judges to have when determining how well an item was
made _within a medieval/renaissance context_.  They are especially
important when the item may not fit in with our (modern) tastes, but
would have been perfect, in period.
--maire

Nancy Kiel wrote:
> 
> By your logic, of including the process, an embroidery entry would be
> something like "This is a copy of the blackwork pattern seen in so-and-so's
> portrait.  I used 32 count linen and black silk thread.  First I put the
> needle into the fabric at the middle of the fabric, and brought it up two
> squares over.  Then I put it back through two squares to the left. (And so
> on, ad nauseum.)"  I would hope that competition cooking judges have enough
> basic cooking skills to verify that steps were followed without demanding
> written confirmation.