HCR "A dish of snow"

Table of Contents

• Project Data
• Slide Presentation
• Analysis based on Making and Knowing Wiki Reconstruction Template
  • Goal
  • Title analysis
  • 
    Recipe analysis
    
    

Name: Ariane van Buren and Hannah Elmer
Date and Time: 2017.1.25, 11:00am (together), 2017.1.30, 8:00am (repeated alone)
Location: 407 Central Park West #7c, Ariane's kitchen
Subject: How to make a dish of snow



Analysis Using Wiki Reconstruction Template:

Overarching goal:

• What are we trying to find out?

"With a partner, cook a dish based on a recipe found in a sixteenth- or seventeenth-century book or manuscript to decipher and concoct." We are seeking to discover through experience, the wording of a recipe, the ingredients used, the measurements used, the procedure, the product, and, in the case of the recipe for "A Dishe of Snow", the presentation of the product.

• What level of authenticity are we striving for in a given reconstruction

"As much as possible, [we tried] to simulate early modern ingredients, apparatus, and methods."

• How accurate can we be not knowing what the end result should actually look like?
• We can simply be as clear as possible in our choices of ingredients and our estimations of the measurements and procedure. The degree of accuracy was a function not only of not knowing the end result, but also of not having made the recipe before, and that product being unknown in our present day eating habits.
  • How do we mediate between allowing process to unfold and striving for a preconceived end-goal? PROCESS vs. PRODUCT!!

We did not attempt to "mediate between allowing process to unfold and striving for a preconceived goal".. Rather, we followed and recorded the process as it occurred, got the product we did, and sought to make the presentation look like snow on a bush and also look appealing.

• We learn by filtering out our preconceptions as best we can

We discussed our preconceptions, challenged each other's, and then I repeated the recipe correcting our preconceptions.

• Are recipes included in compilations because they are meant to convey something new or because they are thought worth recording?

I believe this recipe appears the cook book because it was probably a common dish which people wanted to make. Ken Albala refers to the "ubiquitous" recipes for "snow".

• Situate the recipe within a historical context
  • E.g., when we have to improvise methods to measure, interpret, understand, how might early moderners have made similar improvisations?

For example, the measurement of a "dish" was unspecified, but recurred in the recipe, so we made certain to use the same dish. We assumed it would not be a large one, as a smaller plate was presumably more common than a large one, easier to make out of ceramics, wood, or pewter, and less costly.
One other unusual measurement was a "pottle". We guessed it was half a cup, but then looked it up online and found it to be 2 quarts!


Title analysis:

• What is the object?

A sweet white foam, which when cast upon a branch, looks a bit like an accumulation of heavy snow.

• Where is the recipe coming from?
• 
  

__A Book of Cookrye__ (England, 1591) [See __here__ for a transcription]

Source?
" gathered by A. W. "

• audience for this source

" all such as delight therein"/ gathered by A. W. And now newlye enlarged with the serving in of the table. With the proper sauces to each of them convenient "
" And now newlye enlarged with the serving in of the table. With the proper sauces to each of them convenient "

Recipe analysis:

• How are the ingredients deployed in the recipe? All together? Peppered throughout? Importance of reading the whole recipe multiple times.

Interspersed with the steps of the procedure.

• What about sequence of directions and ingredients - is the recipe presented sequentially, or do things happen out of order?

Sequentially.

• How is the text of the recipe broken up?

It is not broken up and consists of one short paragraph.

• What does this tell us about how the practice/process should take place?

The process is presumably straightforward and takes place quickly in one stage.

• How do we interpret ambiguous antecedents, articles, prepositions, action verbs, etc.? Variant spellings?
• Purpose-designed equipment vs. multi-purpose tools
  • E.g., what to make of “unit-less” fractions, ambiguously sized vessels, etc.
  • How do technological changes impact our interpretation/expectation of the recipes? (e.g., ceramic vs. metal vessels)
  • How do environmental conditions impact the recipe?
  • Re: equipment/implements: metals/alloys (e.g. possible differences between vessels that are ‘lead lined,’ or ceramic, or copper, or pewter vs. what is generally available in current culinary use - aluminum, stainless steel)
• Questions of precision and ambiguity
  • precision vs.close following of the recipe
  • ambiguity vs. flexibility of a recipe
• How often are tools specified?
• How are measurements actually done? Emphasis on ratios over standardized units
  • How does this relate to the overall quantities specified in a recipe? Scalable
• What impact do translations/interpretations have on reconstruction?
• How do the motivations behind historical recipes relate to modern motivations?
  • E.g., do early modern diseases/problems resemble modern ones? And how do such underpinning assumptions impact our reconstructions?
    • There is a surprising continuity of materials and techniques over time
• What is the stability of a material over time?
  • E.g., eggs now vs. eggs then
• How common is the assumed knowledge required to follow a recipe?

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Name: (Also the name of your working partner)
Date and Time:

2016.[Month].[Day], [hh]:[mm][am/pm]

Location:
Subject:

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Name: (Also the name of your working partner)
Date and Time:

2016.[Month].[Day], [hh]:[mm][am/pm]

Location:
Subject:

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ASPECTS TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN MAKING FIELD NOTES

• note time
• note (changing) conditions in the room
• note temperature of ingredients to be processed (e.g. cold from fridge, room temperature etc.)
• document materials, equipment, and processes in writing and with photographs
• notes on ingredients and equipment (where did you get them? issues of authenticity)
• note precisely the scales and temperatures you used (please indicate how you interpreted imprecise recipe instruction)
• see also our informal template for recipe reconstructions

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