Progress!

[khromat]

I have now completed the certification to be a Personal Chef, and got my CA Food Handler's Certificate.  I've got an appointment with SCORE next week to help my idea become presentable for a bank or the SBA to give me a loan, and I'm working on what my start-up costs will be (not cheap, but nowhere near as bad as a brick-and-mortar concept) so now

Comments

[khromat]

Well, my primary source material is a book called "Elinor Fettiplaces Receipt Book", published by Viking Penguin Press in Briton: this compilation is the result of a playwright's wife discovering a small handwritten cookbook in her husband's late great-aunt's attic... the frontispiece had a date of 1604. Over 20 years, Hilary Spurling cooked the little cookbook, translating and redacting the 400 year old recipes until she was commanded to publish what she had written. :)

Some of my other period books are things like "The Closet of Sir Kenelme Digby's Closet, opened" which is a reproduction of a 1615 cookbook so there's no modern translation in it, I get to do that myself.

Most of the compilations I use have a copy of the original recipe next to the redacted modern version, which allows me to see what was originally done and if the modern version is close enough or whether I have to do my own version. :)

Favorites

[khromat]

Actually, I have several favorites. The mincemeat recipe is great and I made the spanish marmalade and one of the rabbit pye recipes my signature dishes at RenFaire.

I had not tried any of the alcoholic beverages which looked appealing. In general, the techniques of the time had to do with understanding the levels of heat one could get with a open flame... and of course there are a few examples of recipes that our modern palettes (and understanding of chemistry) would avoid.

Re: Favorites

[khromat]

Remembering that any trade skill was taught through an apprenticeship system, cook books rarely had any *techniques* listed in them, as it's assumed you already know them. The neat thing with Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt book is that it's a noblewoman's house book, a gathering of recipes from friends rather than a commercial book by a professional. So there are occasional references to techniques ("have it close by the coals") ("meke sure it be thoroughly boiled und skim it

Re: Favorites

[khromat]

I still want to have cooking dinner parties... and it would be neat to have a Cooking Panel at a FurCon..... :)

Re: Favorites

[khromat]

I wish I could talk with that gentleman sometime! While the table being presented is very pretty, it's also rather sparse for the time and doesn't have as much color as contemporary references I have indicate they'd lay out.

On the other hand, he did do what I had planned for my next Renaissance Cooking Competition -- before they told me I couldn't enter, as they made me a judge. Instead of a White Gingerbread Cloister, though, I had intended on making a proper Red and White Gingerbread Manor, with stained glass windows, half timber intrusions and candied-flower knot garden. :)

Re: Favorites

[khromat]

Then, as now, centerpieces were more for decoration, even if it was made with edible materials.... in my case, for the cooking competition I had intended it to be completely edible, with extra bits like the knot garden having individual 'plates' of edibles.... which, by the way, were themselves edible. A popular banquet feature used 'candyplate' as the table settings, which is a hard marzipan-royal icing like material.