[Sca-cooks] cookbook ratings

[Stefan li Rous]

Adamantius replied to me with:
> > I'm curious. So which medieval cookbook would you recommend
> > "Fabulous Feasts" ahead of?
>
> "Take A Buttock of Beefe", by Verity Isitt, which juxtaposes ECW-era
> recipes (Joan Cromwell's cookery-book, IIRC) with semi-modern and
> modern recipes using the same ingredients. If you didn't read it
> carefully you'd think it was just really bad adaptations of
> early-post-period recipes. Technically, I suppose, it would be really
> easy to argue that it was never the author's intention to responsibly
> provide period recipes in modern adapted form, for modern cooks, but
> just to provide a sort of half-a**ed cookbook for those with an
> interest in the history of domestic science.
Uh oh. That is another cookbook in my collection. Thank you for the 
warning. I will keep this in mind.
Taking a quick glance through the book, it looks like the information 
may not be that far off and it does have some good photographs or 
pictures of various food items and cooking utensils. And unlike many 
cookbooks, it does give the original recipes. Unfortunately, it doesn't 
seem to say where the original recipes are from. It does show though 
why I like to have the original recipes. It seems to follow each 
original recipe with a modern redaction, but in most cases the 
redaction is so far from the original that most are really totally 
different recipes.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****