[Sca-cooks] OOP layout and printing question

[Kirsten Houseknecht]

well, if this is for NON pro cooks, i would suggest putting (in Italics,
maybe) a "suggested Instructions" with what you recall..... make sure at the
front of the books you state that the "suggested instructions" are based on
your  memories of how this was done, and may be inaccurate.
otherwise they will likly get very frustrated very fast.

and if you ever decide you wish to do a limited publication run, for anyone
else..... let me know, eh? sounds like an interesting collection.....
Kirsten Houseknecht
Fabric Dragon
kirsten at fabricdragon.com
www.fabricdragon.com
Philadelphia, PA     USA
Trims, Amber, Jet, Jewelry, and more...

I worry about you, wear a reflective sweater...
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pixel, Goddess and Queen" <pixel at hundred-acre-wood.com>
To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at ansteorra.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2004 2:16 PM
Subject: [Sca-cooks] OOP layout and printing question


> Yes, this is actually food related, but there's a bit of a
> lengthy explanation required.
>
> My grandfather was a professional baker--for a long time it was the family
> business. Mom and my uncle both worked in the bakery, and my uncle went on
> to run his own for a while. All the bakery recipes were kept, handwritten,
> in a black leather notebook. When my uncle started his bakery, my
> grandmother gave him a notebook (which he still has, somewhere, in a
> box) of bakery recipes, which we thought was the only one that was still
> around. (A cleaning woman had apparently made off with *the* notebook, but
> looking back on it I think what she stole was one of the really good cake
> decorating books, because I *know* that one went missing, and it was
> around the right time. Anyway.)
>
> My grandfather passed away 16 years ago. My grandmother moved into a
> senior residence a couple of years ago, and everything she didn't take
> with her went into storage. Neither my father nor I had anything to do
> with any of the packing. Recently I was down visiting my father to get
> some of said grandmother's stuff that I'd claimed, and to this end we were
> moving boxes and looking through them so we had a vague idea of what's
> there (since, of course, neither of us had anything to do with the packing
> or the moving). In one of the boxes was a paper bag labeled "Bakery
> recipes for Selma/Frank/Lois". Printed, so I have no idea who wrote it. In
> this bag are five of the aforementioned black leather notebooks, full of
> recipes in my grandfather's handwriting.
>
> I've been through them all, and although some of the same recipes show up
> in more than one place, they aren't duplicates of each other, not at all.
> So my plan is to transcribe all of them, and print them up as a bound book
> with copies for each of my grandfather's surviving children and the five
> of us grandchildren. With an image of the original next to the
> transcription, so one can see where it came from.
>
> Now my quandaries: Do I arrange them in order, i.e., book 1, book 2, etc.,
> or do I put all the similar recipes together (there are at least seven
> different recipes for chocolate icing, for instance)?
>
> The other quandary is this: Very few of these recipes have instructions.
> They're mostly just lists of quantities, usually in weights. Do I try to
> recreate the procedures from memory and from similar recipes, or should I
> just transcribe what's there and let the various family members do their
> own legwork if they want to actually make something?
>
> [Incidentally, I now have my grandfather's recipe for pecan tarts, and
> more importantly, for the tart shells. Which is slightly different from
> most tart shell recipes, and now I know why mine never tasted quite the
> same as his did. Grandpa put almond flour in his tart shells, and the
> quantity of butter is different.]
>
> And so I come to you, because you will understand what it is that I have
> and what I want to do, and why it's important.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Margaret
>
>
> "Please. I have had too much of the stupid today. Please wait until
> tomorrow to say these things so my tolerance has refreshed."
>
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