[Sca-cooks] Re: Documentation "Fun"

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On May 19, 2006, at 1:10 PM, Martha Oser wrote:

>
>>> Well, YOU may think documentation is fun, and so may lots of  
>>> other  folks, but not everyone does.
>>> Personally, I find the history of food (and a great many other   
>>> things) fascinating, but I find research is a DRAG.
>> So how do you learn about this subject that fascinates you? Osmosis?
>
> More or less.  I read, I watch, I listen, I learn.  That's why I'm  
> on this list.

Well, this is as good a place as many others to learn, but it almost  
sounds like you're happy to do research, but just don't want to use  
the "r" word. All research is, in this setting, is mostly talking to  
people about cooking. The only difference is that some of them have  
been dead for 600 years, and are communicating to us via their notes.  
I think it's pretty cool, like a time-travel cell phone.

>>>   This is the main reason I haven't gone back to school to get a   
>>> "Pile it Higher and Deeper" degree - all it really means is  
>>> having  to do research for the rest of my life!
>> A lot of people are in that position, but think of it in terms of,  
>> "I  haven't found anything yet that interests me enough to warrant  
>> the  extra work..."
>
> Yep, that's exactly it.  There's a LOT of stuff that interests me,  
> just not at the level that I want to "research" it.

Would you read a book about medieval food if someone gave it to you?  
'Cause that's research. Is there something about breathing in dust  
that gets you?

I do a fair amount of research. Not as much as some, and a lot more  
than many. Mostly it's looking at recipes written a long time ago and  
trying to use them to figure out what they can tell us about life in  
the time period in which they were written. Is it research? Yes, I  
guess it is. But I wouldn't do it if it weren't fun for me, and if it  
were something other than research (let's call it zlabotke), I'd  
still do it for fun.

>>> I'd rather cook good food and serve it to appreciative people,  
>>> not  beat them over the head with my phone-book sized pile of   
>>> documentation while they're eating.
>> Can you name a single example of anyone actually doing that? Or a   
>> case where documentation precludes quality? Or are you perhaps   
>> exaggerating to strengthen your point, or suggesting that good  
>> food  and good documentation are mutually exclusive?
>
> Golly, I guess I could be exaggerating...  ;)  Certainly good food  
> and good documentation are not mutually exclusive.  I'm just not  
> minded to do the Ph.D.-level research and documentation that seems  
> to be the standard these days.

It's only a standard if you choose to acknowledge it as such. I make  
a rule of paying little or no attention to what others expect of me.  
I have a very high standard for myself, though, and I frequently  
compete against myself. If competing with others, I would presumably  
mow some people down without even noticing it, and there'd be others  
who'd be judged by others as being "better" than me.

For example, I was asked to be in a subtlety competition by my Queen  
some years ago. She knows I'm a good cook, but simply doesn't  
understand the concept of a cook that has little or no interest in  
subtleties. I agreed, and produced a fairly simple subtlety, a cake  
in the shape of a ship, from a 17th century English recipe. To me,  
the challenge was to make it work in that shape, to produce a cake  
pan in the right shape that wouldn't leak, one that would fit in my  
oven, and come apart so the cake could be easily removed. Secondly, I  
wanted to make a really good cake from a historical recipe, and I  
left it to my competitors to decide for themselves what their goals  
were and to go crazy in the decorative arts. I also completed my  
decoration on site in the middle of a 12th Night laurelling vigil  
while people discussed various A&S issues with me (I was the Kingdom  
MoAS at the time).

As I recall, the competition was won by someone who had purchased a  
large proportion of presented foods ready-made. The people who came  
in second and third had worked hard to produce beautiful displays,  
and I was thrilled to see them get a chance to showcase their skills.  
I guess I came in fourth out of four, which was fine with me, and if  
I had it to do over again, I would do the same thing.

I suspect it would be a great thing if you could find something new  
you've never cooked before, and shared it with your friends -- both  
the item itself, but also the process whereby you made your various  
decisions on how best to approach it. This way, you get not only good  
food, but learned something, and shared what you've learned, all  
without giving a hoot about somebody else's Ph.D.-level standards ;-).

Now, it may be that somebody out there might not appreciate your not  
giving a hoot about their standards, but that's really their problem,  
not yours, isn't it?

>   I like to cook, not write about cooking.

"Can you tell us what you did to make such good gingerbread, Helena?"

<ha! gotcha!>

Adamantius




"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04