From project's FAQ (https://thesifter.org/Home/Faq):
Q: What is not in the Sifter?
A: It does not contain the texts of books or recipes.
Seems to be a bit useless without it.
A Database of Historical Cookbooks
11–20 of 68 posts
Re: A Database of Historical Cookbooks
#12that is so amazing. A friend found an old Indian cookbook in an obscure language which was 80 years old and realized that even some daily food evolved so much just in the span of a century
Re: A Database of Historical Cookbooks
#13As a person who doesn't cook very well, the value I find in most old cookbooks (and a surprising number of modern cookbooks) is just that: historical. And sometimes the sadness that no one makes certain dishes anymore.
But I can't for the life of me figure something like "Stew until ready. Not long before it's ready add finely chopped garlic" [1] or "Prepare the duck, stuff it and stew until done" [2]
Give me times, and temperatures, and sizes, and weights! And don't start me on the weights :D Cups, and spoons, and whatever else are not valid systems of measure :)
[1] Moldovan Beef Stew from "Moldovan Cuisine", Eronina, Avaeva. Chisinau, 1990
[2] Stuffed Duck with Buckwheat Kasha [3] from "Jewish Cuisine", Lebowich, Meisel. Riga, 1991.
[3] Kasha, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasha
Re: A Database of Historical Cookbooks
#14As a person who doesn't cook very well, the value I find in most old cookbooks (and a surprising number of modern cookbooks) is just that: historical. And sometimes the sadness that no one makes certain dishes anymore. But I can't for the life of me figure something like "Stew until ready. Not long before it's ready add finely chopped garlic" [1] or "Prepare the duck, stuff it and stew until done" [2] Give me times,…
Cooking is really an art with lots of tacit knowledge that vary too much to put in a simple recipe.
Re: A Database of Historical Cookbooks
#15From project's FAQ ( https://thesifter.org/Home/Faq ): Q: What is not in the Sifter? A: It does not contain the texts of books or recipes. Seems to be a bit useless without it.
Useless is an understatement.
Re: A Database of Historical Cookbooks
#16What a treasure it would have been, recipes from several thousand cookbooks since the turn of the first millennium or older, but alas - there are no recipes here. This may be at best useful for laymen like me as an index for ingredients, prior to getting the actual book from a library or similar. Amazing example of cataloging effort though.
Re: A Database of Historical Cookbooks
#17As a person who doesn't cook very well, the value I find in most old cookbooks (and a surprising number of modern cookbooks) is just that: historical. And sometimes the sadness that no one makes certain dishes anymore. But I can't for the life of me figure something like "Stew until ready. Not long before it's ready add finely chopped garlic" [1] or "Prepare the duck, stuff it and stew until done" [2] Give me times,…
Compare https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_sheet
"You want to go to 57th street? No problem, lady. I'm going to 5th avenue. Just watch me! When I get off, yours was the stop before."
(video pairing: Recipe For Disaster, orig. "Masha + Kasha", with The Trouble With Tribbles)
Re: A Database of Historical Cookbooks
#18I'm personally interested in what old fast food and junk food used to taste like, for example the recipe to the original Coke drink: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/extras/the-recipe . I wish I could go back and taste a 50's In-N-Out meal.
Sounds like a great idea to start a museum (exhibition) with. You could make a 50’s restaurant with various food offerings that were popular then.
Or restaurant which copies very precisely some famous historical restaurant menu.
Re: A Database of Historical Cookbooks
#19The more I try to cook, the deeper respect I have for historical cooks. The things that we have for granted now, like thermometers, stoves where one could set the level of heat were unavailable and cooking almost anything besides very simple dishes was quite hard.
If you cook a lot, you'll soon realize that cooking without all the technological advances is actually easier. After some time one develops an instinct of how things should be be (based on color, taste, size, even sound !). For example, if one wants too cook onions, choosing between butter and oil, checking the colour, checking if it's cooked or not, deciding to add some water at some point, or additional stuff to induce better Maillard's reaction, etc. All of that you'll be able to do it without resorting to technology.
That's what I find so gratifying about cooking. After 20 years, I can now make things that taste much better than in the past I'm not always sure of why :-) But lots of practice sure make a difference and it's rewarded. Plus additional bonus : you make many better moments in your life that don't cost much !
But granted, technological advances makes somethings better. For example cooking under vacuum allows you a incredible level of control on what you do plus much healthier result.
Re: A Database of Historical Cookbooks
#20From project's FAQ ( https://thesifter.org/Home/Faq ): Q: What is not in the Sifter? A: It does not contain the texts of books or recipes. Seems to be a bit useless without it.
I spent a good 15 minutes trying to get to that data. I should have gone to the FAQ first instead of "diving" right in with excitement.