[Sca-cooks] - a slight rant on logic (was Sauerbraten)

[Jeff Gedney]

>[Deleted most of  evil-nasty-proto-Laurel Rant.]

Now jest a gol durn second, missy...
Ah bin called many things in my day, but "evil-nasty-proto-Laurel" sure aint one of em. 
Evil, sure... 
nasty, sometimes... 
Proto Laurel? I think not! Can you image ME as a peer? 
with a "thrum cap of maintenance"? oy!

>I don't see anything wrong with asking 'did they have anything 
>like x' in period, as long as you are not starting with the 
>intention of serving X.

Neither do I, and I thought I said that.

But at the point I spoke up, the phrase "Period Saurbraten recipe" had already been put up at least once in reference to a cited recipe, showing that the conversations was already sliding down the slippery slope right out of the context "Here are possible antecedents to sauerbraten or Sauerbraten LIKE dishes period" into the "here are Period Sauerbraten recipes" context.

Remember, Jadwiga, Oh true Proto-Peer, the whole conversation started with the phrase: 

"I'm trying to document sauerbraten for an upcoming feast."
Admittedly, the next line was " What I have found
says "no, not in period"  Closest thing is 1790s.", but it seemed  clear to me from the outset that the intention was to serve the Sauerbraten and if possible backdocument it to "justify" it. 

So right from the outset the excercise appeared to fail even YOUR test of acceptability.

Jadwiga, I am certainly no stranger to having to fill in the gaps with speculation, after all there are entire classes of medieval ships that don't have any surviving exemplars, nor any documented linkages to survivals. But proper interpolation comes AFTER research, not before. You can set an inital premise to guide your research, but it should not serve as a filter to your results. 
If you are not ready to accept the result you dont want, then you are not doing researching, you are merely validating. 

Once you start with the belief that there _has_ to be a period version of a thing or recipe, and that it is only a matter of finding it, you have left the realm of history, and entered the world of religion. 

BackDocumentation is more often about being "Right" than it is about being "Accurate". 
And it usually fails on both scores.

Capt Elias
-Renaissance Geek of the Cyber Seas

-------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather 
wood, divide the work, and give orders.  Instead, teach them
to yearn for the vast and endless sea. 
  - Antoine de Saint Exupery