Early Modern Recipes (1600-1800) in a Modern Kitchen • Hacker News Board

Re: Early Modern Recipes (1600-1800) in a Modern Kitchen

#31

Post by pimlottc » Wed, Sep 03, 2014, 7:41 AM UTC

kevinconroy wrote: post #11

kaji88 wrote: post #8

I am not much of a cook but everytime I cook, recipes never work. Sometimes, it seems like that if you follow the receipes measurements exactly, your food almost never tastes like what you expect. There always needs a bit of human discretion. As such, I find video recipes to be far more effective. You can see them cook and get a feel of what "cook meat until brown" really means, or what is a "sprinkle of green onion"

I've found that part of the problem is that there's a very bad user experience with recipe formats. They assume that one will get all ingredients out first and will only start to follow the instructions once everything is ready. Almost no one does that all of the time. The back and forth reading that you have to do results in errors because you lose your place, skip a step, add an ingredient in the wrong order, etc.…

You should take a look at Cooking for Engineers. They've come up with an interesting diagram shorthand for recipes that, while rather reductionist, provides a nice quick reference when you're in the thick of things.

An example: http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/200/Osso-Buco

Re: Early Modern Recipes (1600-1800) in a Modern Kitchen

#32

Post by evgen » Wed, Sep 03, 2014, 10:12 AM UTC

kosmopolska wrote: post #30

Heston Blumenthal's London restaurant Dinner by Heston[1] has a similar theme, with British recipes from the 14th to 20th century. The only restaurant I've been to where the menu had a bibliography [1] http://www.dinnerbyheston.com

And if you are into that, his cookbook Historical Heston contains a lot of the recipes and background for some of the items at Dinner. Eventually picked it up just for the tipsy cake recipe...

Re: Early Modern Recipes (1600-1800) in a Modern Kitchen

#33

Post by Squarel » Wed, Sep 03, 2014, 11:14 AM UTC

I liked this, I have some of the 1500s or so recipes from when I have been inspired watching historical cooking documentaries, but the problem for me has been figuring out how to translate them properly to modern ingredients.

Re: Early Modern Recipes (1600-1800) in a Modern Kitchen

#34

Post by jghn » Wed, Sep 03, 2014, 12:16 PM UTC

sk5t wrote: post #25

jghn wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact, it is much better to do what you describe. My cooking life became much easier once I learned to get a proper mise-en-place going. By the time I actually turn on a burner or anything like that, everything is fully prepped and ready to go in a pre-measured container.

How can you do a mise for, e.g., one-off home baking? In the case of familiar recipes I find it easier and cleaner to use a JIT process...

I don't bake, I only cook so your specific example I don't know.

I'll also admit that when I'm dialing something in ("needs more X") that obviously that's not prepped ahead of time.

Anything else I find it easier and cleaner to just have a bowl of X ready to go. It goes in the dishwasher within minutes of using it, and my cutting board and such was already cleaned.

Re: Early Modern Recipes (1600-1800) in a Modern Kitchen

#35

Post by Mikeb85 » Wed, Sep 03, 2014, 12:18 PM UTC

idlewords wrote: post #26

It's frustrating how much they alter the recipes. Do it like the funny text says!

Yup. The fish custard may have actually turned out had they followed the recipe. And there are fish-custard-y recipes from other cultures that turn out and taste great...

Re: Early Modern Recipes (1600-1800) in a Modern Kitchen

#36

Post by coldpie » Wed, Sep 03, 2014, 1:07 PM UTC

pimlottc wrote: post #31

kevinconroy wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found that part of the problem is that there's a very bad user experience with recipe formats. They assume that one will get all ingredients out first and will only start to follow the instructions once everything is ready. Almost no one does that all of the time. The back and forth reading that you have to do results in errors because you lose your place, skip a step, add an ingredient in the wrong order, etc.…

You should take a look at Cooking for Engineers. They've come up with an interesting diagram shorthand for recipes that, while rather reductionist, provides a nice quick reference when you're in the thick of things. An example: http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/200/Osso-Buco

That's hilarious! As soon as I saw that diagram, I knew how to read it. I write recipes I copy off the internet onto paper in a similar format. List of ingredients, along with a word or two about what to do with them, draw a line next to the whole grouping and an arrow into the next step where that result is used.

Re: Early Modern Recipes (1600-1800) in a Modern Kitchen

#37

Post by cobralibre » Wed, Sep 03, 2014, 2:33 PM UTC

Of the recipes that I read, cherry brandy is the easiest by far — you macerate several pitted cherries in a jar for several days — and not alien at all to a contemporary reader with an interest in these things. But should it have been quite so easy? 'Brandy' is almost as general a term as 'wine' or 'beer'. Which brandy available to an American in 2014 would be most comparable to the brandy available to an English cook in 1601, I wonder?

Re: Early Modern Recipes (1600-1800) in a Modern Kitchen

#38

Post by peterwwillis » Wed, Sep 03, 2014, 2:58 PM UTC

kaji88 wrote: post #8

I am not much of a cook but everytime I cook, recipes never work. Sometimes, it seems like that if you follow the receipes measurements exactly, your food almost never tastes like what you expect. There always needs a bit of human discretion. As such, I find video recipes to be far more effective. You can see them cook and get a feel of what "cook meat until brown" really means, or what is a "sprinkle of green onion"

Video recipes aren't really recipes, they're instructional guides. They instruct how to cook and provide lots of detail in a compressed form. A recipe is just the design parameters. You won't be able to write the app with just design parameters; you have to know how to program first.

Re: Early Modern Recipes (1600-1800) in a Modern Kitchen

#39

Post by 3minus1 » Wed, Sep 03, 2014, 3:13 PM UTC

kaji88 wrote: post #8

I am not much of a cook but everytime I cook, recipes never work. Sometimes, it seems like that if you follow the receipes measurements exactly, your food almost never tastes like what you expect. There always needs a bit of human discretion. As such, I find video recipes to be far more effective. You can see them cook and get a feel of what "cook meat until brown" really means, or what is a "sprinkle of green onion"

Watching videos has been very helpful for me. My favorite is Chef John because he is informative and entertaining

http://foodwishes.blogspot.com/

Re: Early Modern Recipes (1600-1800) in a Modern Kitchen

#40

Post by carlob » Wed, Sep 03, 2014, 3:42 PM UTC

My grandmother had a cookbook from the 1920s and she claimed she had to update all the recipes to account for increased egg size. From the first recipe it doesn't look like that's the case here.