[Sca-cooks] cookbook ratings

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach 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.

I think the recipes are all from the same source, so unless you look 
carefully at the beginning you may miss it. I forget which, but 
they're either from Joan Cromwell's cookery book or some household 
book of Queen Charlotte of England.

As for the redactions, they're not, really. The reason they seem so 
far off is because they're just modern recipes that vaguely resemble 
the older recipe, based on ingredients and maybe the basic cooking 
method. So, they'll have a late-period recipe for a stew of beef (I 
am making this up, understand) followed by a modern beef stew recipe 
which really has almost nothing to do with the first recipe given.

Adamantius, hoping to recoup yesterday's losses in Chinatown tonight...