

On “updating” premodern recipes (2014) - pepys
https://marissanicosia.wordpress.com/2014/09/25/a-question-of-updating/

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tofof
Summary: 'Updating' involves everything from transcription itself to changing
the spellings to match their modern equivalents - but also to convert
ingredients or their handling (room-temperature butter, for example), and
finally the more substantial issues of converting cooking on something like a
hearth to modern alternatives.

Some people gripe at any 'updating' but it's actually a subtle problem on
where to stop.

~~~
ghaff
There are even more subtle issues of updating than were touched on in the
post. A lot of meats (especially chicken and pork) are much different than
their equivalents of even a few decades ago. As a result, recipes in even
relatively recent cookbooks like Julia Child's classics will "work" but
they're probably not ideal for today's leaner pork and more tender chicken.

~~~
cbd1984
That reminds me: The older admonitions to cook pork until it's bone-dry and
sawdust-like date from an earlier era before modern pig ranching, when
trichinosis was more common and cooking until desertification was the only way
to ensure safety. These days, at least in America, trichinosis is practically
unheard-of and pork can be juicy and tender with very little actual risk.

[http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/may/26/cooking-...](http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/may/26/cooking-
pork-safely-the-science)

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kwhitefoot
If you are going to update it would be a good idea to use weights in gram or
kilogram rather than the volume of ill defined cups and vague quantities such
as not too large. Then everyone could enjoy them without having to scour the
web for equivalent measures. Similarly for Fahrenheit, it might have been
modern in 1724 but most of the world has moved on.

~~~
Mikhail_Edoshin
It's not everyone, it's just you. Metric system might have been hot in 179x or
when it was introduced after the French revolution, but it's it's not that hot
anymore; it's simply not convenient, especially in the kitchen.

Here's my recipe: scour the web once and write it down; buy calibrated cups or
measure what you have once and remember it (again, write it down); enjoy.

