Hello Christine!
Monday May 27 1996 12:40, Christine Kasupski wrote to Ian Hoare:
 >>  CK> Ok... I have that recipe,
 >> How odd, 'cos I only just typed it in myself!
 CK> By saying this... it is something the same with maybe 1 or 2 different
 CK> ingredients... sorry about that...
AHA!!! I hope you don't think I was flaming or anything. I see what you mean.
 CK> I am the kind of cook who will look at a recipe, and then sort of go
 CK> my own way... trading, or adding spices etc... to suit my tastes, or
 CK> someone elses...
What I tend to do, (because I used to be a professional), is to try a recipe 
EXACTLY as written. Once to start with, to see what the person writing the 
recipe meant it to taste like. It is an old habit, as I said, because when a 
client used to ask me to do a recipe for her/him, s/he usually wanted it to 
taste the way they knew it, which means that for my purposes, consistency was 
very important, and to be consistent, I used to have to have precise recipes 
and to follow them precisely.
Coming back to new recipes, then, if I like it as written, I tend to use it 
like that, because I'm not in the least creative as a cook. If, however, I 
like it, more-or-less, but think it could do with improvement, then I play 
with it until I'm happy, but then again I use it exactly as is.
CK> pepper dishes, and ate LOTS of potatoes and homemade Kraut... Which is
CK> the one thing I'm sorry to say I never got a chance to learn how to
CK> make...
I have never made sauerkraut, but I don't think it's terribly hard to do. 
After all, it was a staple dish for millions of ordinary people - still is, 
for that matter. I remember reading something about all this in George Lang's 
book on Hungarian cooking. When I have a moment, if you like, I'll see if I 
can copy it in for you.
 CK>  She had a stroke, and now cannot show me how to do
 CK> these things anymore...
That's a real shame. So many of the old skills are being lost nowadays. It is 
one of the really sad things I've noticed in recent years in France, where I 
live. With both members of the family working, and children going to school 
(instead of staying at home to help on the farm) many old skills are being 
forgotten. I'm not wanting to turn the clock back, one really can't have 
whole classes of illiterate children and housebound mothers, but the 
consequences of changing economic circumstances are sometimes unexpected.
 CK>  But my grandfather showed me how to make a mean Stolen... =+}
Not ALL is lost then. :-))
All the Best
Ian
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