1840 - Directions for Cookery

Weights and Measures

DDV CULINARY

WE recommend to all families that they should keep in the house a pair of scales,
(one of the scales deep enough to hold flour, sugar, &c., conveniently,) and a set
of tin measures: as accuracy in proportioning the ingredients is indispensable to
success in cookery. It is best to have the scales permanently fixed to a small beam
projecting (for instance) from one of the shelves of the store-room. This will preclude
the frequent inconvenience of their getting twisted, unlinked, and otherwise out of order;
a common consequence of putting them in and out of their box, and carrying them from
place to place. The weights (of which there should be a set from two pounds to a quarter
of an ounce) ought carefully to be kept in the box, that none of them may be lost
or mislaid.

A set of tin measures (with small spouts or lips) from a gallon down to half a jill,
will be found very convenient in every kitchen; though common pitchers, bowls, glasses,
&c. may be substituted. It is also well to have a set of wooden measures from a bushel
to a quarter of a peck.

Let it be remembered, that of liquid measure--

Two jills are half a pint.

Two pints -- one quart.

Four quarts -- one gallon.

Of dry measure--

Half a gallon is a quarter of a peck.

One gallon -- half a peck.

Two gallons -- one peck.

Four gallons -- half a bushel.

Eight gallons -- one bushel.

About twenty-five drops of any thin liquid will fill a common sized tea-spoon.

Four table-spoonfuls or half a jill, will fill a common wine glass.

Four wine glasses will fill a half-pint or common tumbler, or a large coffee-cup.

A quart black bottle holds in reality about a pint and a half.

Of flour, butter, sugar, and most articles used in cakes and pastry, a quart is
generally about equal in quantity to a pound avoirdupois, (sixteen ounces.)
Avoirdupois is the weight designated throughout this book.

Ten eggs generally weigh one pound before they are broken.

A table-spoonful of salt is generally about one ounce.