was P Re: [Sca-cooks] Plentyn Delit, now taught to cook

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

> But as homey and warming as all this intuitive cooking-by-eye is (and
> I'm not criticizing what I do myself), there is something to be said
> for using and following recipes as well. If the dish is something
> you've never cooked before, aren't sure whether it's a pottage, stew
> or casserole (because ingredient proportions often largely determine
> or at least indicate this), it helps to have a recipe, and most of
> the great cooking-by-eye cooks of my experience have worked from
> recipes which they've pretty well got memorized, measure by eye (or
> some other not-very-obvious unit, such as a lump of butter the size
> of an egg) only after considerable experience using more traditional
> tools.
>
> To be honest in a situation where honesty in this may not be taken
> well by everyone, the fact is that some people who cook by eye simply
> aren't interested in reproducible or consistent results, if taking
> the time to measure stuff and wash the little spoons and cups is what
> that costs. Sometimes I fall into that category.

I have to admit that I just don't deal well with standardized measuring,
unless I have to, like when someone else will have to work from my recipe.
Instead, I find myself seasoning by taste and by eye, and mixing by
consistency.

I found this highly amusing when I was working on redacting one of the
syrups from the Andalusian-=- the Mint syrup calls for handfuls of basil,
citron, mint, and cloves. I know from personal experience that mixing
equal amounts is not going to make a mint syrup. However, looking at it I
realized that when I am making potpourri and write down 'a handful' of a
spice, it's what fits in my cupped hand; when I write down 'a handful' of
a fresh herb, it's a fistful/bunch. Tried it that way and it worked.
However, when I went to make it a syrup, I tried estimating how much sugar
to put in by eye (the original doesn't tell you), instead of measuring
the infusion and adding appropriate amounts of sugar, and ended up with a
syrup that was way too thick.

> Recipes exist as either a memory aid or a teaching tool, and if the
> cook who is supposed to be receiving input from the recipe is simply
> taking the ingredients list and throwing the ingredients together in
> whatever way they feel like at the spur of the moment, the results
> may be good, but not necessarily what the original cook intended (is
> it in the first edition of Pleyn Delit or maybe To The King's Taste
> where mortrews ends up as meatloaf?).

Yes, I try to pay very close attention to the recipe directions and if
quantities are given to approximate them. But I love the 'until it is
enough' directions. :)

It's strange how much better I am, though, at cooking from a period than a
modern recipe. I find it amusing.

-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
"But he's a human being and terrible things happen to him so attention
must be paid.... Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a
person."  -- Arthur Miller, _Death of a Salesman_