Old Recipes + Cooking Ideas

Revised 14 July 2020; Original 8 March 2019

My Story

Last Summer, like I did the year before and will do next year, I prepared and served a special, very healthy, home made lunch party in celebration of my work colleagues. The picture above shows what I made this year, an obviously French oriented setting and foods.

Many of the recipes I used were older ones, and a bit difficult to understand. This experience with those older recipes caused my eye to catch an article written by Bill St. John (9 Jan 2019) in The Denver Post. He was writing on what one can learn from reviewing very old recipes.

Older Recipes + Techniques

Interpret Measurements

St. John wrote that following older, ancient really, recipes requires a “[l]etting go of the precision of measurement [which] is not only scary, yes, but also liberating. When you can go without measurement, you know you’ve graduated to expert cooking.”

I have found there are two types of cooks, those that chemist-like need the exact measurements and cook times, and those that are artist-like who really just need the list of ingredients and a sense of the final dish. Both cooking methods are valid and can lead to great food.

But to help us I have a page on measurements as a guide to help us move our cooking from exactness of the measurement to exactness of the dish’s flavor.

Natural Food Coloring

He also writes that they knew how to color food naturally. Want yellow? Use saffron. Want green? Use spinach. In ancient times they did not use food dyes or chemicals, but used natural food to harness the colors they could provide.

I do not have dyes in my kitchen, I always let the food shine through its color and if I want something slightly different looking I use food to make that change. So I have added a page on making your own food dyes, like they did in olden times.

Start With the Freshest

The Chefs who produce outstanding and inventive dishes started with extremely good food. In ancient times, they hunted or gathered foods they were going to immediately cook (or dry, or ferment). Their ability to identify edible food, gather it, and cook it was phenomenal.

We have generally lost the ability to forage, except for a growing movement headed by Native American Chefs. We rely on what the marketers have decided we want to eat. So often, we cannot even find foods that historically were growing wild around us.

So the goal is to use the freshest, in-season, and organic foods.

Substitutions

In older days they knew the power of substitutions, do not have salt? No problem use dried anchovies or fish sauce. Do not have sugar? No problem use the juice from that apple. Amazing what they could accomplish with just the ingredients that were readily available and all around them.

This attitude is why I have a DIY section in my site and just added how to make flavored sugars. There is no need to run out to a store because you do not have mayonnaise, especially when you can make your own.

Cooking With Your Senses

To learn to use your senses when cooking really requires being in a class situation, or by someone’s side who knows what they are doing; and learning the sounds, touch, look, taste, and smell of food. Older recipes provide hints for doneness, like cook until you smell the herbs, add the meat when the oil is ready to sizzle, rather than provide times.

The Chefs I have worked with do not need measurements either (baking excepted of course!), nor cook times, they just seem to know. It is cooking magic until you realize they are just using their senses and are attuned to their environment. They can hear from the sound of the oil sizzle if something is cooking right, or the smell of the food if it is time to remove it from the oven, or by touch if the meat is medium-rare; in short all their senses are involved in cooking.

Mise en Place + Cooking Techniques

Part of learning to cook is to have your prepping site ready to go. Mise en Place is all about preparing to cook, gathering the food, measuring and cutting, and getting everything ready. Cooks have done this for a long time, in order to make the process of cooking efficient.

But getting ready includes knowing what cooking techniques you’re going to use so you can prep the pots, pans, skillets, and baking sheets. Which is why I have added a cooking section so you can get generic cooking instructions, and a tools section to provide instruction on what implements you need to cook.

News + Tips on Food

Another aspect of ancient cooking is that cooks shared information on the location of food or ingredients, and shared look-alike foods to avoid. The apprentice program for cooks were necessary and vital to teaching the next generation of Chefs. Sharing tips, tricks, and news is a vital aspect of this training.

That is why my posts generally always have”news” and “tips” sections, because I want to share if there are new concerns regarding our foods or food supplies. As the Latin saying goes, forewarned is forearmed.

Ethnic Food or Cuisines

I have also created an Cuisine section that includes a link to many German foods. I want to share some of my family’s recipes for the younger generation of my family and yours.

One of the aspects of using ancient recipes is that food and cooking was very regional. Today we can get ingredients from all over the world, but back then you were stuck with what you had available. The meat, fruit, veggies, seasoning, or herbs that were used in cooking were either local or bartered for from traveling merchants. So I list information on the various cuisines: German, Japanese, and Italian to start.

Conclusion

The article St. John wrote was a springboard for me to think about what kind of cook I am. Although I always start with a recipe, I find it hard to follow exact measurements and wind up adding all sorts of things to a dish. That is probably why I am not a good baker.

—Patty

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