[Sca-cooks] Search Techniques

[David Friedman]

I have machine readable texts of translations of a number of cookbooks 
on my desktop--the same texts I have webbed on my site. Unlike printed 
books, they are searchable. So one of the first things I would do would 
be a search of likely candidates, such as the Anonymous Andalusian. My 
current interest, al-Warraq, I only have as hardcopy, and that might be 
my next target. I use the web to get information and to find sources for 
ingredients I can't find locally, but I don't think I've ever used it to 
look for primary source recipes, and my only real interest in secondary 
source recipes is to occasionally look at how someone else has done 
something I'm already familiar with.

On 10/4/12 8:38 AM, Johnna Holloway wrote:
> This may seem a bit offbeat, but I thought maybe this list might like the topic.
>
> For a talk I am scheduled to give at a cookery conference down the road,
> I have been looking once more into the larger question of how people go looking for information on historical Medieval and Renaissance cookery, foods, and/or recipes.
>
> Where do you look for information and ideas on medieval foods and feasts in 2012 as opposed to say back in 2002 or 1992? The web and lists first?
> Have the lists of yesteryear been supplanted by Facebook?
>
> If seeking information, do you post the query before attempting to look on your own?
> Or do you Google first? Is this being driven by use of cellphones and not computers? Is it easier to post the query than to search
> on the smartphone? Do people also not respond to a query now because it's harder to do so from a smartphone?
>
> How about Resources at home? Do you buy fewer books?
> How about using Resources/databases through a library? Do you ever look through a book at home first?
>
> How have your search techniques changed?
>
> Medieval recipes? Do you look at books at home first or turn
> to the web?  Which sites do you use and trust?
> Have you dropped out of researching ? After an N number of years, you no longer care to keep up with the field. You've retired.
>
> I was told recently that someone did all of his/her medieval cookery research for an SCA "cookbook"
> by using Yahoo and the term "medieval". The author didn't check the validity of the sources.
> Yahoo was good enough! "All of the information [needed] is just there!"
> When questioned if this was good enough, the author was of the opinion that everyone's research was equally valid  and ok because this
> was the SCA.
>
>
> Johnnae
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>
>

-- 
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/