Category Archives: News

What is a Recipe?: A Recipes Project Virtual Conversation

Digital Humanities, Events, News, Research,

The Recipes Project is a DH/HistSTEM blog devoted to the study of recipes from all time periods and places. Our readership and contributors highlight the growing scholarly and popular interest in recipes. Over the five years that the RP has been running, our authors have continued to revisit one key question: what exactly is a recipe?  How do we know one when we see one?  What is their structure? What functions do recipes serve? How are they shared and passed on? Are they a set of instructions, a way of life, or a story? Aspirational or frequently used? Prose, poem, or image? The list could go on!

A doctor on the telephone (which is linked up to a television screen) to a patient whom he can both observe and talk to from a distance; representing possible technological innovations. (D.L. Ghilchip, 1932.) Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

And the question becomes even more complicated when we consider  the ways that social media creates new and innovative formats for conversations about recipes, across disciplines, academic/non-academic boundaries, and the world. At the RP, we’ve found that blogging is a wonderful way for recipes scholars to share their work and interests, but we recognize its limits as static text.

Introducing… the Virtual Conversation

We would like to invite you – whatever your background – to join us in our first Recipes Project Virtual Conversation, which will take place across a series of online events over the course of one month (2 June to 5 July).

Modern Medicine Pamphlets, Recipes (1930s). Credit: Wellcome Library.

The month-long event will be framed by two more traditional panels of speakers. The first, “Repast and Present: Food History Inside and Outside the Academy,” will be convened at the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians in June. The second will be held in the UK in July, and will feature all of the RP’s editors.  We’ll record these two panels and post them online for discussion.

In between these panels, we’ll host a series of virtual events during which we flood social media with images, texts, and conversations about ‘What is a Recipe?’

Are you a visual person who loves Pinterest or Instagram? Or do you prefer the brevity and playfulness of Twitter? Do you use recipes in historical re-enactment, or try to reconstruct historical recipes in the lab? Are you a knitter who uses old patterns? Whether you’re a recipes scholar, or a recipes enthusiast, there is a place for you in our conference.

During the Virtual Conversation, we will be collecting and archiving presentations for a post-event exhibition site.

Types of Presentations

Designs for mince pies from Hannah Bisaker’s recipe book
1692. Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

We are open to any form of online presentation on the topic of ‘What is a Recipe?’ You might use Twitter for poems, stories, or essays… Or Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat for photo-essays… Or YouTube, Vimeo, or Facebook Live for videos… Or a blog forum… Or you might have another brilliant idea, which we’d love to hear!

Participation is open to ALL, whether you decide to present or to simply join the discussion.

How to Participate

Please register your interest in participating by contacting Recipes Project editors Lisa Smith and Laurence Totelin (historicalrecipes@gmail.com) by 30 April 2017.

In your email, please indicate your activity, medium, and (if any) preferred dates between 2 June and 5 July. In the interests of open participation, we are not vetting abstracts.

But in your application, please be detailed, because this will help us as we organise online activities, find participants, and ensure that we have permission to reproduce work on our exhibition site. Some virtual technical support may also be possible, depending on your needs.

We have reserved two hashtags for the conference: #recipesconf and #recipesproject. Please use these for all presentations and discussions, so participants can be sure to find each other.

We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Sites of Inspiration

If you’re looking for digital inspiration…

Funding for this conference has been provided by the University of Essex.

The Transcribathon in Summary

Lady Castleton, News, Posts, transcribathon
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons.

I am happy to report that our (more than) triple-keyed transcription of Lady Castleton’s book is complete.

The transcribathon lasted twelve hours, included 128 participants, and covered three continents and six countries (England, France, United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia).

The top three transcribers in terms of pages completed were Kim Connor (42), Jennifer McNabb (28) and Kelsey Helvesten (28). The winners of the two transcription sprints were Monterey Hall and Breanne Weber.

Thank you to everyone who joined us throughout the day! You are a wonderful and amazing bunch.

Contributors

Abbie Burnett
Alice LeCorvec
Allie Hoback
Amanda Duncan
Amrita Dhar
Amy Powis
Amy Tigner
Ann Marie Kolbl
Anthony Lyman-Dixon
Ashley Morrison
Benjamin Woodring
Ben Lauer
Beth Kreitzer
Brandilynn Aines
Breanne Weber
Brooke Pincince
Caitlin Etherton
Carly Krug
Carole Sargent
Casey Kuhajda
Catherine Koehl
Connor Jensen
Cristopher Shell
Daiana Zavate
Debapriya Sarkar
Derek Dunne
Dianne Mitchell
Eileen Jakeway
Elaine Leong
Elizabeth Ball
Elizabeth Crachiolo
Elizabeth Hall
Elizabeth Yale
Eluned Smith
Emily Fields
Emily Jones
Emily Rendek
Erin McCarthy
Erin Spinney
Gabriella Santiago
Georgianna Ziegler
Heather Wolfe
Helen Kemp
Hillary Nunn
Holly Pickett
Jacob Tootalian
Jana Jackson
Jane Cunio
Jeanette M. Fregulia
Jennifer McNabb
Jennifer Munroe
Jessie Foreman
Joshua Eckhardt
Julian Neuhauser
Julie Drew
Julie Nguyen
Karen Reeds
Katharine Locke
Katherine Sexton
Kathryn Stephan
Katie Kadue
Kayla Hardy-Butler
Kaylor Montgomery
Kelsey Helveston
Kerry Hackett
Kim Connor
L. Jerleen Justus
LaVonne Evans
Leah Astbury
Liliana Rodriguez
Lisa Vargo
Luca Tifone
Lucy Pyner
Macarena Placentino
Marianne Wilson
Mary Learner
Meaghan Brown
Megan Heffernan
Meghan Kern
Melissa Geil
Melissa Schultheis
Monterey Hall
Nadia Clifton
Najwa Alsulob
Nancy Simpson-Younger
Nathan King
Nathan Neal
Nicholas Peterman
Nichols de Courville
Nicole Weibert
Nicole Winard
Pamela Lovett
Paul Dingman
Philip Allfrey
Pricilla Padaratz
Priya Pal
Quincy McMorries
Rachael Shulman
Rauslynn Boyd
Rebecca Laroche
Rob Wakeman
Ron Carter
Ruth Selman
Samuel Fatzinger
Sandra Sine
Sapphire Hornyak
Sarah Clayburn
Sarah Curtis
Sarah Linwick
Sarah Powell
Scott Rogers
Shannon Gardzelewski
Shaylee Walsh
Shelby LeClair
Sian Mathias
Taryn Dollings
Taylor Parrish
Theresa O’Byrne
Thomas Mocarski
Tiffanie Marine
Tom Jaine
Tracey Cornish
Victoria Rendt
Vince Sosko
Will Parker
Wyatt Prohaske
Zachary Maguire
Zoe Orcutt

The Transcribathon in Numbers… and Names

Early Modern Manuscripts Online, Events, News, Rebeckah Winche, transcribathon, Wellcome Library

By Lisa Smith

The final counts are in for the Transcribathon.

There were a total of ninety-three transcribers who joined us on October 7, from five countries (Australia, Canada, Germany, U.K., U.S.).

The Winche Manuscript has sixty-five images, which included 208 pages, plus cover pages and interleaves. Transcribers started to work on 313 images and completed a total of 269 images. On average, every page was completely transcribed four times… That surpassed our goal of triple-keying the entire book!

Over the course of the day, there were three transcription sprints. The winner of the first was Rose Hadshar and the winner of the others was Breanne Weber.

Well done, everyone! I’m so pleased to have worked with you. Thank you for participating in our Transcribathon.

Doctor and Mrs Syntax, with a party of friends, experimenting with laughing gas. Credit: Wellcome Library, London.
Doctor and Mrs Syntax, with a party of friends, experimenting with laughing gas. Credit: Wellcome Library, London.

List of Credits

Erin Abell, Katherine Allen, Sam Barcenas, Maria Blumberg, Christ Boettcher, Meghan Brown, Meghan Carafano, Jennifer Caro-Barnes, Jayson Carroll, Daniel Cattell, Jonathan Cey, Melissa Christine Schulteis, Justin Colson, Kim Connor, Maya Cope-Crisford, Nicholas de Courville, Morgan DeKlyen, Paul Dingman, Taryn Dollings, Julie Drew, Alexandre Dube, EMMO, Njaal Frilseth, Kailey Fukushima,  Erin Gallagher Cahoon, Clare Griffin, Rose Hadshar, Monterey Hall, Kayla Hardy-Butler, Amanda Herbert, Jason Hogue, Jordan Ivie, Jana Jackson, Julianna Jaegle, Robin Kello, Helen Kemp, Jenny Kimura, Katja Krause, Casey Kuhajda, Tayra Lanuza, Rebecca Laroche, Deborah Leslie, Lina Malmo, Hope McCarthy, Kat McDonald-Miranda, Brid McGrath, Jake Millar, Adam Mosley, Jennifer Munroe, Allison Needles, Marissa Nicosia, Hillary Nunn, Sally Osborn, Tawny Paul, Sara Pennell, Melissa Perkins, Mitchell Ploskonka, PLUBookin Society, Shelan Porter, Daniel Powell, Emily Rendek, David Rundle, Julianna Schaus, Jacqueline Schoenfeld, Hui Shen, Kim Shrive, Haley Schultz, Margaret Simon, Kailan Sindelar, Alanna Skuse, Lisa Smith, Joul Smith, Vince Sosko, Kalea Steffe, Katie Stephan, Anne Stobart, Caroline Stone, Elizabeth Tevlin, Amy Tigner, Amanda Torres, Raff Viglianti, Alice Violett, Emily Wahl, Julie Wakefield, Terran Warden, Breanne Weber, Abbie Weinberg, Christopher Whittick, Ann Elizabeth Wiener, Lizzy Williamson, Rachel Winchcombe, Heather Wolfe, Ada Wong

Note: There are two notable absences from the list of transcribers: Elaine Leong and Erin Spinney. Although they were not transcribing, they were working behind the scenes to keep everyone on track!

Thank you, everyone!

Events, Folger Shakespeare Library, Graduate Students, News, Rebeckah Winche, transcribathon

By Elaine Leonge

113461
Folger MS v.b. 366, back cover

It’s time to close the book. 12 hours have passed, our fingers are sore and our computers are fast running out of batteries. I’m delighted to say that we completed our task! We now have a TRIPLE-KEYED transcription of Rebeckah Winche’s lovely recipe book. More on that in coming days…

Over the past 12 hours, we’ve encountered a wide array of medicinal and culinary know-how and are now armed with instructions to pickle turnips, distill aqua mirabilis, make a water for sore eyes, bake a cheese cake and much much more. With our brains filled to the brim and sunset nearly upon us, we’re heading out for a round of celebratory beer.

Before we do that, EMROC members would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to all those who joined us on this adventure. Being recipe lovers, we would also like to share with you two recipes which caught the eyes of the “Folger transcribers”.

FullSizeRenderDo let us know if you decide to try one of these at home! For now, good bye and good night.

A redy way to know the deseas called the Kings
evill
Take a grownd worme & lay itt alive to the place greved &
take a green docke leafe or 2 and lay them upon the worme
& bine them to the place at night when the patient goes to
bed & if it be the kings evill itt will turne to dust or poud
=er by the morning otherwise it will remayn dead in his owne
former forme as it was a live

A nother for the same deseas
Take a live toade & cut of one of her hinder legs
sewe it up in a pece of silke & hange it presently about the
neck of the party greeved. observe if it be a boy or man that
is greeved then a girl or  woman must kill the toade but if
a girle or woman be ill then a man must kill it
this hath cured many however if doth sertanly help the other
remydy or any other you shall apply to the sore (if any) to
worke the better efect & sooner cure.

To make pancakes
Take a pinte of creame 4 spoonfulls of fine
flower well fried 4 egges 3 quarters of a pound of
butter well clarefied season it wi th  salt & a little
nutmeg mixe it all very well together
there needs no butter to frie it, it is fat enough to
fry it self. thay must be very thin & in a small
frying pan.

Transcriptions courtesy of Breanne Weber, MA student University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Breanne won both the transcription sprints hosted at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Now you know whom to call when you need a seventeenth-century manuscript transcribed in a jiffy!

[The two recipes can be found in Folger MS v.b. 366, pages 63 and 80].

 

 

Transcribathon continues

Events, Folger Shakespeare Library, News, transcribathon, , , ,

Welcome to #transcribathon all those who have now joined us or will be shortly joining us from the University of Saskatchewan, University of Texas Arlington, Pacific Lutheran University, and the University of Colorado (Colorado Springs), as well as independent scholars from Ottawa, Calgary, and Australia!

The University of Saskatchewan crew
The University of Saskatchewan crew

We are going to be on a roll for our last three #transcribathon hours.