I've been a fan of Tasting History for about a year, and Miller talks about a lot of these things during the episodes. He will read the text of a historical recipe, as it was written in the past. The text often reads something like, "Take a full measure of flour and beat eggs into ytte until it yield a smooth dough..." No mention of how many eggs or what a "full measure" of flour is, or anything like that.

Miller says the recipes were written by chefs for chefs, so it is presumed that whoever reads the recipe already knows how to make basic foods, so the recipes are a sort of shorthand--quick notes on how to make a pudding or a pastry.

I researched by visiting Miller's Wikipedia page and reading previous interviews he's done. I do hope to interview Miller at some future date, but I am just starting my writing journey and felt too shy to approach him.

Now, he's apparently read the piece himself and has reacted to it on Twitter, so I feel a lot more comfortable with approaching him. Now I'm not some anonymous person he's never heard of.