On Writing Lore
I spent the weekend building the internal logic behind the Recipe Box at Fox & Thistle Studio. How can recipes deciphered by AI search results (which everything seems to be moving towards) still be memorable and enticing to humans?
Data is forgettable. Lore is not.
Each recipe is classified in several different ways.
Thirteen themes, which correspond to the 13 lunar months in a year. Each recipe is sorted into one or two of these categories. Some belong to history. Others to ritual, superstition, or memory.
Heritage & Tradition, Historical Depth, Ritual & Superstition, Foraged & Wild, Coastal & Maritime, Seasonal Comfort, Spice & Warmth, Botanical & Herbal, Preservation & Alchemy, Craft & Technique, Libations & Celebrations, Absurdities & Excess, Blue Moon Recipes
Each recipe is also organized by which drawer in the kitchen cupboard that it operates from:
Baked Goods, Preserved/Fermented, Salad/Raw, Stew/Broth, Grain/Legume, Roasted/Baked Vegetable, Protein, Beverage/Libation, Odds & Ends
Lastly, each is sorted into the Wheel of the Year by season and cycle. Loosely based on availability, tradition, and nostalgia:
Spring Awakening Recipes, Summer Abundance Recipes, Harvest Moon Recipes, Winter Solstice Recipes
These threads are woven visibly and invisibly, linking them by season, practice, geography, and lineage.
Classification into cosmology.
See the Recipe Sorting Guide here.
Folk traditions survive because they work and play.