Project M.A.K.E.

Making 15th Century Artisan Colour Recipes

Recipes by artisans and builders are explored by tracing material etymology and remaking colors including pigments for cooking, for fresco painting, wall plaster, dyes, inks and other exotic spatial "paints" that frame our experience of the early modern world.

Recreating Early Modern Tastes

What is 15th century green sauce for cooks and artists?  Why did the sweet dish called blancmange include chicken breast?  Exactly what did artisans mean when they indicated something was sweet over five hundred years ago?  Working with history means understanding the space between here and then.  Reading is given depth by making and tasting at CSALT.

Re-making historic fragrances

What was the olfactory environment of our past like?  What did good food smell like?  How can we bridge this sensory gap to better understand the past?  CSALT undertakes experiments in remaking material fragrances by making them based on early modern "books of secrets" as a way of understanding.