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

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").

By the same token, there are very few recipes for vegetables (or "vegatives") because, like today, vegetables are predominantly simply cooked (Roasted, steamed, boiled, etc.) and so no recipe was needed to be written down. Now, the few recipes that exist are more complicated endevours like the tansey pancakes, grand sallets (what today we'd call Chef Salads) and the like.

Predominantly, the kind of recipes that were passed around were methods of preservation (how many ways can you make Marmalade? I have at least 40 now!) medicinals (which includes liqueurs), banquetting items (what we'd think of as fancy desserts for parties) and sauces -- they loved sauces for their meats!

Re: Favorites

[khromat]

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