[Sca-cooks] Search Techniques

[Claire Clarke]

Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2012 11:38:22 -0400
From: Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com>
To: Cooks within the SCA <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Search Techniques
Message-ID: <6ECF1755-DC87-4C4B-B1C3-DA55EBD34F0A at mac.com>
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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?

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When I first started cooking for SCA things I was a penniless student, and I
mostly either asked other people for info (or looked at their books) or
cooked stuff I'd seen other people cook. Then I got more interested in doing
it properly and discovered some books in the university library. 
Once I got a job I began to buy my own books, which I still do from time to
time, but not as much as I used to, probably because I have moved more and
more towards preferring original texts and I now have access to most of the
ones I am interested in (either via books, or the internet). Book
acquisition also had to wait for internet commerce to become a bit more
mainstream, because it's unusual to find mediaeval cookery books in
bookshops here. There just isn't the market for them. 
These days if I have a query I will probably start with Google, unless it is
one of those 'I'm sure I've read/seen this before' queries, in which case I
will go straight to the texts. I tend not to ask questions directly - I
generally prefer to work things out for myself. Also I read a lot in this
area out of interest, so when I come to do a feast I more usually go 'hmmm,
what a great opportunity to try out x' rather than 'I guess I'd better go
out and find out about x'

Angharad