[Sca-cooks] Redaction (Was: Some recipes that I have redacted)

[Lilinah]

Whether or not i redact a recipe depends on who i'm cooking for.

I successfully cook directly from historical recipes, without testing 
or ever having tasted someone else's version. I did this in an "Iron 
Chef" style competition (and won), i've done this in classes i've 
taught, i do it for potluck dinners at camping events, i do it for 
myself.

I try to take notes, because if the dish is successful and i want to 
repeat it, it's nice to know what i did; and if it was unsuccessful, 
i want to know what i did so i can improve on it.

If i were cooking only the cuisine from a single culture in one time 
period, this would be less necessary. But i cook recipes that date 
from about 1500 BCE to the mid-17th century CE (that's over 3,000 
years), and from Europe and North Africa, to Southwest, South, 
Central, and East Asia, so i'm not just dealing with one style.

When cooking a feast i MUST make redactions. When I cook for 60-150 
people, i give the recipes to cooks of various skill levels. I CANNOT 
give a period recipe to a cook and dependably get a tasty dish for 
all the feasters.

I've had experienced cooks in my kitchens and i've had people helping 
who have never cooked period food and even one who didn't even cook 
much modern food.

Even when working with experienced cooks, i want the recipes to taste 
a certain way, so i prefer to use my interpretations, which are 
likely to differ from theirs. The exception is when i've had a cook's 
version of a dish and already know how it will taste - but this is 
infrequent. I'm always one of the cooks even when i'm Head Cook - i 
heard somewhere that the Head Cook should just supervise, but i 
couldn't be there and not cook. I usually taste the dishes before 
they go out, but i'd rather not have to change a dish because of 
someone else's interpretation or inexperience.

-- 
Urtatim (that's err-tah-TEEM)
the persona formerly known as Anahita

My LibraryThing
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/lilinah