OMG, this is way too much fun...
Thanks to T (on Facebook) for pointing out the new Zooniverse site, Shakespeare's World. In a nutshell, this is similar to the old Distributed Proofreaders project, but specifically focused on manuscripts from Shakespeare's time.
They've got a reasonably nice UI for transcribing the period MSS, so while reading the sources can be challenging, the tech doesn't get in the way too much, and has lots of tools for precisely describing what you see.
Best of all, they are starting out focused on two topics -- one of which is "Recipes". So basically, this is carte blanche to get random recipe pages from period, and transcribe them. Which is kind of an SCA cooking researcher's dream. (They make a big deal about finding words that aren't yet in the OED, but I consider that a completely minor detail -- the neat opportunity is for finding period *recipes* we don't already have in the major cookbooks.)
It's a hoot. Try it out...
They've got a reasonably nice UI for transcribing the period MSS, so while reading the sources can be challenging, the tech doesn't get in the way too much, and has lots of tools for precisely describing what you see.
Best of all, they are starting out focused on two topics -- one of which is "Recipes". So basically, this is carte blanche to get random recipe pages from period, and transcribe them. Which is kind of an SCA cooking researcher's dream. (They make a big deal about finding words that aren't yet in the OED, but I consider that a completely minor detail -- the neat opportunity is for finding period *recipes* we don't already have in the major cookbooks.)
It's a hoot. Try it out...