Our favorite celebrations are full of traditions — many of them centered on food. Heirloom recipes are lovingly prepared and offered for the family to enjoy. Imagine that it is finally your turn to bring great-grandma’s famous baked Lima beans to the holiday meal. The honor and excitement you feel is real. Then you look closely at the recipe and realize there are almost no measurements, and the ones that are listed are unrecognizable. There is no cooking time or temperature. There is no procedure to follow. How could that be? This recipe has been passed down from generation to generation and, somehow, has survived with only vague instructions.
Reading old recipes can be charming, but the actual dish may be difficult to replicate. For instance, in a recipe calling for butter the size of an egg, how do you know what size egg? The grocery store sells them in at least four different sizes. Maybe that old recipe calls for a gill of flour and a jigger of water. Fish have gills, and jigger sounds like a word used when you can’t think of the actual word for something. How much exactly is a pennyweight, dessert spoon or wine glassful? (Most people would agree that dessert spoons and wine glasses should be generously sized.) While these measurements are obscure now, they had meaning long ago. It was common for cooks to use visual representations of measurements when preparing a dish. In addition, they watched someone else make the same dishes for years, usually their mother or other family member. They knew what it should look like, and how it should taste. Finally, cooks only learned a small number of recipes, because they only had access to local ingredients. Those same meals were rotated regularly.
Written recipes started to come into popularity in the eighteenth century with the first American cookbook, American Cookery, which was published in 1796. The author, Amelia Simmons, combined traditional English recipes with new recipes using native North American ingredients such as cranberries and corn. These recipes were still imprecise in terms of measurements and instructions.
Handwritten recipes became more of a necessity to save family traditions as nineteenth-century Americans were much more mobile. Some were emigrants leaving behind their country of birth in search of a better life. Others moved from farms to the growing cities or traveled west in search of adventure and a new way of life. Consequently, the days of learning to cook by watching a family member or friend were quickly coming to an end. Even though the publishing of cookbooks was on the rise, the recipe itself continued to be rather vague. It still consisted of a few sentences stating approximate amounts of ingredients with very little direction concerning procedure or cooking time and temperature. Since there were no standardized measurements or thermometers on ovens, cooks used familiar objects to approximate amounts and tried to judge the temperature of the oven by how long they could leave their hand in it.
In 1887, a 30-year-old woman named Fanny Farmer enrolled in the Boston Cooking School. Not only was she considered one the school’s top students, but she went on to accept a teaching position upon graduation and, eventually, became its principal in 1897. She firmly believed that cooking was a scientific process and provided explanations of the chemical changes in foods as different ingredients were added. Farmer strongly advocated for standardized measurements in order to achieve the best results. “Correct measurements are absolutely necessary to insure the best results. Good judgment, with experience, has taught some to measure by sight; but the majority need definite guides.”
During this time, actual measuring cups and spoons were coming into use. Some historians credit Fanny Farmer with their invention, but others contend that the cups and spoons were already in use at the cooking school. All agree that Farmer standardized their use by insisting that all measurements be leveled across the top of the cup or spoon instead of heaping. This earned her the moniker “the mother of level measurements.” In 1896, Fanny Farmer published her cookbook entitled The Boston Cooking School Cook Book which is now better known as The Fanny Farmer Cookbook. The publishing company was skeptical that it would sell but agreed to print it if she paid the costs. The first run consisted of only 3,000 copies. They sold quickly. Not only was the book loved for its tasty recipes, but also for the methodical approach that allowed home cooks of any skill level to reproduce dishes. Just as she taught at the Boston Cooking School, Farmer’s book used a more scientific approach to cooking and baking.
The success of The Fanny Farmer Cookbook came during a time when there were fewer experienced cooks. Society was increasingly more mobile, and families were more spread out than ever before. In addition, the expansion of the railroad made it possible to source ingredients from almost anywhere. Cooks were excited to try recipes from other places or cultures, therefore, “eyeballing” the ingredients was no longer an option. Recipes needed to be reproducible.
As home economics educators agreed with Fanny Farmer’s scientific approach to cooking, American recipes began to change at the beginning of the twentieth century. Instead of a vague description of ingredients, recipes began with a complete list of ingredients with the precise amounts needed. The procedure was then laid out step by step. That format has not substantially changed since then.
These days there is an entire industry devoted to home chefs, a virtual buffet of cooking shows and foodie magazines as well as appliances and cooking gadgets. Through multi-media, we are bombarded with new recipes, reincarnations of old recipes and techniques that promise to make our next dinner party a huge success. However, there is a special place for the family recipes that have been handed down from generation to generation. If your recipe contains unrecognizable measurements, take heart. There are many charts to help with the conversion. That well-loved recipe with the vintage measurements will still be delicious!
Notes for the Curious:
-- The size of a hen’s egg equals 1/4 cup or 4 tablespoons.
-- 1 cake fresh yeast equals 1 yeast packet or 1 tablespoon dry yeast.
-- A “wine glass” equals 1/4 cup.
-- A teacup equals a scant 3/4 cup (scant means slightly less than the amount listed).
-- A dessert spoon equals 2 teaspoons.
-- A saucer equals 1 heaping cup.
-- A breakfast cup equals 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons.
-- A knob equals 2 tablespoons.
-- A pinch equals 1/8 teaspoon.
-- A smidgen equals 1/2 pinch or 1/32 teaspoon.
-- A fistful equals 1/4 cup.
-- A dollop equals 1 heaping tablespoon.
-- A pony equals 1 ounce
-- A pennyweight is a unit of mass equal to exactly 1.55517384 grams. It is the common weight that jewelers use in the measurement and valuation of precious metals. For cooking purposes, a pennyweight is equal to 1/8 scant teaspoon.
-- A jigger is a measuring tool that bartenders use to pour precise amounts. There are two theories about how the device got its name. One suggests that British sailors received their daily rum or gin rations in the cup and named it after the lowest sail on the ship. Another possibility is that “jigger” is from the word “thingamajig,” which is used when you can’t remember the name of something. For cooking and baking it is equal to 1.5 ounces.
-- A gill is used to measure volume. While it is no longer commonly used for cooking or baking, it is still used to measure alcohol, especially in Great Britain, Ireland and Scotland. The measurements are now expressed in the metric system but still based on gills. Back in the day, you could go to the pub after work and order a big gill, a wee gill or just a nip, depending on the day you had had. For conversion, use 1/2 cup in cooking and baking.