A Culinary Reference Manual, Revised Edition, 2000

Interesting, slightly useful. Not a reading book, it's exactly what it says on the cover - a reference manual. The first part, with the steps in redacting a medieval recipe to be cooked nowadays, is very interesting and useful (if you do this sort of thing, which I do, at least occasionally) -

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comparing different versions, attempting to figure out what the end result is supposed to be (often not at all obvious!), attempting it (and writing down exactly what you do), examine (including tasting) the result and decide what should be varied next time. Then there's a list of ingredients, discussing when they were known - pears are ancient throughout northern Europe, but while peaches were in France and Italy since the 1st century they apparently didn't reach England until the 16th, for instance. The largest portion of the book is a sort of glossary of ingredients and instructions - what the heck does this recipe mean by "eysell"? That's vinegar. Or "cast above" - sprinkle with spices, or pour a sauce over. There are some errors here - repeated lines, apparent typos (in the modern language parts) and some definitions that really don't make sense to me (which means I need to research them, or accept the research of the authors here). And the final bit is an annotated bibliography, separated by types of books - ones with medieval recipes and some translations (not redactions), ones with medieval recipes and modern versions, ones with only the modern versions (and cited sources), and ones that contain recipes that they claim are based on medieval ones. Plus some that give historical backgrounds of food, and general overviews of historical periods, including the food. I own quite a few of the ones listed as useful, here. Overall, possibly useful, especially if I'm trying to do my own redaction; mildly interesting in general.

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