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2013-04-29 19:35:24 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

I've recently acquired a new source for period Indian cooking as a result of conversations on the SCA-cooks email list. It's a small book on Ayurvedic medicine, apparently written in the late 16th c., plus some related recipes from two sources, one (for syrups)  which I haven't found a date for, one (dishes) from 1359. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but they look doable and I thought other people might be interested. The link below goes to a place you can order it from. I got my copy from http://tinyurl.com/csgcwlu, at an even lower price, but at the moment they seem to be out of stock.

2013-04-29 19:25:56 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

I have a virtual bardic circle up on my site, with some of my work and some of Fiana's. It occurred to me that other people might want to do the same thing. Listening to a song, poem or story on your computer at home isn't the same thing as hearing it around a campfire at Pennsic, but it may still be better than not hearing it at all.

2013-04-18 00:40:19 (7 comments, 2 reshares, 20 +1s)

I spent some time today in the Walters Gallery in Baltimore, mostly photographing jewelery. But I noticed that they had quite an extensive display on medieval calligraphy—pigments, gilding, book binding, et al., and it occurred to me that SCA calligraphers might find it of interest. Here's part of it.

2013-04-09 01:29:23 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Making Spinach and Cabbage Dishes: al-Warraq

Today I did one of the recipes we didn't get around to at our most recent cooking workshop. It came out quite well, but raised a few interesting questions. Here is the recipe:
-------------
Making Spinach and Cabbage Dishes
al-Warraq p. 265
 
Isbanakhiyyat (spinach dishes) and kurunbiyyat (cabbage dishes) are cooked the same way. The only difference is the vegetable used. Whichever vegetable you choose, start by cleaning it of any unwanted weeds, and cutting off and discarding roots and stalks. Boil it in water until almost cooked, take it out, and put it in cold water.
 
Now cut medium-size pieces of meat taken from atraf al-mulha’(from the backbone area, the first few ribs, (awa’il al-adla), and some fatty cuts of meat. Put them in a clean pot and add to them [chopped] white parts of fresh onion, a fewdrops... more »

2013-04-02 22:01:53 (5 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

This shows a headpiece from about 1500, which I was asking Meg Baron about.

2013-03-30 06:14:51 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

I'm Cariadoc. I tell stories, cook food, and make things.

2013-03-27 08:19:06 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Elizabeth and I are doing one of our cooking workshops this Saturday in San Jose. If you are in the area and interested in coming, let me know.

The basic idea is that you show up at our house about 1:00, get handed a stack of period recipes, pick one. We spend the afternoon with each person doing one recipe, keeping track of everything--the originals usually don't include quantities, temperatures, or times, and we want to end up with a worked out recipe. When anything is done, everyone tries it and comments.

2013-03-12 20:03:19 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

Since Thora is too modest to post it here--what Dof has been doing during his current visit to the 21st century:

2013-02-24 02:46:53 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

We did one of our cooking workshops today. Two recipes from Martino, two from al-Warraq, one from ibn al Mubarrad. Everything came out reasonably well, although we'll want to do retries to fine tune most of them.

The oddest recipe, or at least the one most unlike other recipes form the same cuisine that I'm familiar with, was for a rack of lamb. Boil it in vinegar till half done, cool it, dry it, rub with spices, roast.

Pretty good.

The local supermarket had no racks of lamb, did have individual chops--at over $19/lb! The local Mexican grocery sold me half a rack of lamb for about $4.50/lb. A useful place to remember.

2013-01-13 15:43:38 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

I'm starting a European speaking tour tomorrow. For details, see my blog:

2012-12-11 01:43:05 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

I'm Cariadoc. Mostly I do period story telling, also some poetry. And I run a bardic circle at Pennsic whose purpose is to maintain the illusion of a group of period people sitting around a fire entertaining each other.

Anyone is welcome who is willing to stay in persona while in the encampment--pieces do not have to be period but should not be obviously out of period. Discussions of whether a piece is period are themselves out of period, hence not appropriate.

The link is to my virtual bardic circle, with some of my work and some of Mistress Fiana's, a friend and one of the ornaments of my circle at Pennsic.

2012-12-11 01:37:41 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

My most recent culinary discovery is 10th century evidence for the use of chemical leavening, something I thought was well out of our period. The source is al-Warraq. The chemical is what he calls "Baker's Borax." As best I can tell, it isn't actually borax; my current guess is that it is either baking soda or some mixture of chemicals including baking soda. But it's pretty clear that it is being used as leavening.

2012-12-11 01:45:58 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

In the book front I am sadly lacking, but slowly increasing my library! I recently was gifted with Apicus, and I've used Forme of Cury rather extensively. Anyone have any favorite book sources?

2012-12-11 01:33:55 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Hoping Hildegard von Bingen's recipes finds a way to my kindle this Christmas.

2012-12-11 01:31:15 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

One book that really inspired me to delve deeper into Period Cooking was the text The Medieval Kitchen by Odile Redon/Francoise Sabban/Silvao Serventi. The boo is easy to read, full of detailed explanations and man any recipes to try. This was my first period cooking book, and one I recommend on everyone's self :)

What was one cook book or text that really inspired you to journey into period cooking?

2012-12-11 01:29:28 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

[ Question ], ingredient: #cassia


When establishing a basic spice selection for my first few forays into medieval cooking, does anyone have recommendations on which cassia I should choose - Chinese, or Vietnamese (as it's my understanding from the linked site that Indonesian is what I already know as "regular cinnamon")?

Also, is it acceptable to just purchase ground for my first attempt at Sweet Powder, or is there a taste or storage reason why I should buy whole?

2012-12-11 01:27:13 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

Cariadoc, currently living in the West Kingdom, having lived in the Middle, East, Atlantia, Meridies, and Caid.

My main SCA interests are period cooking, story telling, jewelry, furniture, and Islamic persona. You can find a good deal of that in the Miscellany that my lady wife and I publish, available as a free pdf from my web page or a hardcopy from Amazon. Those interested in only the cooking can find that in How to Milk an Almond, Stuff an Egg, and Armor a Turnip, which is the cooking part of the Miscellany published separately, also available as both pdf and hardcopy.

2012-11-16 21:12:54 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 5 +1s)

2012-11-16 21:12:03 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

I'm currently at a conference on the Software Patent Problem at SCU, the school where I teach. So far I have put up two blog posts while there, both on IP, one a response to what I think was a mistaken argument being made by a speaker.

The link is to my blog, so will only go to the right posts (the two most recent) until I make another.

2012-11-01 20:30:29 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

I may be mistaken, but I believe I have observed, and been an attempted victim of, fraud by an agency of the state government.

2012-09-23 15:47:37 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 8 +1s)

Good News, Bad News: My view of the election.

2012-09-17 05:22:51 (7 comments, 0 reshares, 8 +1s)

Tenth Century Funnel Cakes--and much else.

I've been trying a variety of recipes from a 10th century Middle Eastern cookbook, written by al-Warraq and recently translated and published as "Annals of the Caliphs’ Kitchens." A few days ago I did a funnel cake recipe which was interesting in part because it uses chemical leavening--something I had thought didn't exit in cooking until much later. There is an ingredient that is translated as "Baker's borax" but which I suspect, for various reasons, is not borax at all and may well be baking soda--sodium bicarbonate.

The other fun thing about the recipe is that the funnel is a nut cup--a section of coconut shell with a hole in it. I cannot see how using that would effect how the recipe turned out, but my daughter persuaded me to try it, so I did.

The recipe--"latticed fritters"--involvesm... more »

2012-06-08 02:47:17 (4 comments, 5 reshares, 4 +1s)

I was recently the victim of what appears to have been deliberate vandalism by the TSA agent who searched my luggage. For details, see the blog post, complete with photos.

One commenter offered an interesting conjecture--that the vandalism is deliberate, if implicit, policy, designed to discourage travelers from carrying things that make it more trouble to search their luggage.

I exchanged emails with a TSA representative at the relevant airport. His email included his phone number. I have now tried calling it about a dozen times, in the hope of getting answers to questions his email did not answer, without ever getting a response.

2012-04-12 06:21:21 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

2012-04-10 04:55:59 (5 comments, 1 reshares, 11 +1s)

I'm currently involved in an online discussion of the nature of libertarianism, hosted by Cato. It started with an essay arguing that classical liberalism did, and current libertarianism should, incorporate a large element of "social justice" a la Rawls. My response argued that what was and what should be added to straightforward natural rights style arguments owed more to Bentham than to Rawls. Two other responses are up, and further conversation is impending.

2012-04-09 06:37:59 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

A recent interview I did has now been webbed. Some of the questions and comments by the interviewer make me suspect that, while he is a libertarian, his view of the world is rather different from mine.

2012-04-09 06:33:40 (0 comments, 6 reshares, 18 +1s)

Some time ago, I saw and jealously admired a Larry Lessig speech accompanied by illustrations. Bitbutter has now done a lovely job of illustrating a talk of mine, demonstrating the advantages of the division of labor—an artist I'm not. Take that, Larry.

2012-03-30 17:17:54 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

I just put up a blog post on fossil law that some may find of interest. It and the previous post, on a natural experiment in paying (some) people to get married, both came out of a talk given by a colleague discussing the clash between state marriage law and federal tax law, in the context of problems currently faced by same sex couples in doing their taxes—married (or the tax equivalent) under state law but not under federal law.

2012-03-18 05:04:29 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Yesterday I gave a talk for the Students for Liberty in Boise. The title was "The Market for Law." The subject was material I intend to add to The Machinery of Freedom in the third edition. I've webbed the recording of the talk and linked it to the web page for my talks; it's the top link .

2012-03-12 19:11:19 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

I have just put up a blog post on a subject that ought to be of interest to the small minority of people who share my interest in both the legal system of saga period Iceland and traditional Islamic law.

2012-02-27 08:20:44 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 7 +1s)

My latest blog post, on global warming and much else, deals with reasons for skepticism that have nothing much to do with climate science.

2012-02-26 00:35:37 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 8 +1s)

The 10th edition of the Miscellany, my and Elizabeth's book on medieval recreation, is out, available now from CreateSpace, from Amazon in a week or so. For those who prefer reading on a screen, the pdf is available for free on my site:
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Medieval.html

And since people can now buy it directly online, I will never have to fill another order. Progress.

2012-02-15 08:14:00 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 9 +1s)

The second edition of my first book, The Machinery of Freedom, which I thought was out of print, isn't. It's available from the publisher or, at a better price, from Amazon. Whether it was out of print, or precisely what "out of print" means nowadays, is not clear.

2012-02-04 08:33:45 (11 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Book vs Kindle--a question:

My second novel is up on Amazon as a kindle file. It wouldn't be very hard for me to also put it up as a POD paperback, something I've already done with a medieval and renaissance cookbook that my wife and I produced, and am about to do with the Miscellany, a larger book on our medieval hobbies.

The Kindle costs $2.99, the paperback would probably be about $8. Are there people out there who wouldn't buy the Kindle but would buy the paperback? Just wondering if it's worth the trouble of putting it up.

2012-02-04 07:29:38 (4 comments, 2 reshares, 3 +1s)

A recent post on my blog reported some first hand evidence on genetic testing, including an estimate of how much the cost of my insurance would have increased if the insurance company knew what I now know about my genes a year back, and adjusted its rates accordingly.

2012-02-04 07:26:51 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

For anyone interested in my novels, I've just had a series of posts, with lots of comments, about them on my blog. Partly on how they are affected by the fact that I'm an economist, partly about the connection between the magic in Salamander and physics, partly ... .

2012-01-14 19:13:22 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

Is there any way of including two links in one post here, or do I have to make it two posts—as I am doing?

2012-01-14 19:11:07 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

Recent posts on my blog include a query as to the view of Republican candidates on polygamy—in particular Republican Mormon candidates—and a demonstration of just how ignorant of history politicians, including a one-time history professor, can be. Or at least pretend to be.

Mencken somewhere commented that Congress earns its salary—considered as entertainment. This show, so far, is free, being paid for by voluntary contributions.

2011-11-26 01:34:07 (9 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

My latest blog posts are an attack on the idea that the interest rate is the price of money—if is is, I would be happy to buy some money at five cents on the dollar—and a new suggestion for how to abolish the publishing industry.

2011-11-10 20:50:05 (21 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Recently, as a result of an online exchange, I came across some comparative data on healthcare outcomes across countries. It's from a British publication aimed mainly at evaluating the NHS. The U.S. comes out better, and the U.K. worse, than one might expect from past public discussions.

2011-11-10 05:02:17 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

I've given a number of public talks recently, recorded them, and webbed the recordings.

2011-11-10 04:59:27 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

I have drafts of most of the chapters of the book I'm currently writing, on legal systems very different from ours, up on my web page. Comments, corrections, and suggestions are welcome.

2011-10-28 22:16:32 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 7 +1s)

I gave a talk today to economics graduate students at George Mason on ideas for doctoral theses—fifteen of them. In case anyone reading this is looking for a thesis topic, the recording of the talk is webbed, along with recordings of a variety of other talks I have given, mostly audio but a few video.

2011-10-25 17:26:42 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

2011-10-25 17:26:00 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

My self-publishing projects: An Interim Report

Self-publishing, either as hardcopy or ebook, has gotten very easy of late, and I have one publication of each sort currently up. The hardcopy publication, by myself and my wife, is How to Milk an Almond, Stuff an Egg, and Armor a Turnip: A Thousand Years of Recipes, produced via CreateSpace, Amazon's POD subsidiary, and currently available on Amazon. It's been up for several months and has sold 93 copies, bringing in a grand total of $203 in royalties. Not exactly a best seller, but easily twice as much money as it cost us to put it up—and much of that was postage for multiple proof copies as we kept finding new mistakes.

For SCA people reading this, Elizabeth and I are currently proofing the 10th edition of the Miscellany, also from CreateSpace, and it should be up on Amazon real soon now.

My e-book publication is mys... more »

2011-10-16 01:07:09 (7 comments, 2 reshares, 6 +1s)

Some good arguments can't be reduced to a sound bite.
And some good sound bites are bad arguments.

2011-10-15 17:27:00 (18 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

2011-10-15 01:20:19 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

(The link doesn't seem to have pasted the first time)

2011-10-15 01:18:51 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Next weekend I'm speaking at Libertopia in San Diego.

2011-10-09 19:31:53 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 7 +1s)

Learning from Marshall, and How Kids Learn to Write Nowadays