Weights & Measures

One of the things I have noticed by reading older cookbooks is that they use units of measurements that I have either heard very infrequently or don’t remember ever hearing. Well, I have found one book called The Easiest Way in Housekeeping and Cooking Adapted to Domestic Use or Study in Classes by Helen Campbell. It is a really interesting book in that while it can be used for household use it was primarily written as a textbook for teaching young women how to run a household.

(Now, I know, I know that I just posted a blog on the Proverbs 31 woman and I know (eyes are rolling here) that I have stated that it isn’t so much what she does as it is her character. But you will have to forgive me here because I found this information as something worth sharing.)

I am not a person who typically weighs or measures things when cooking. If I am baking something I will, but even then I won’t always measure. I have some things that I have baked for so long that I know the feel of the dough well enough to know when I have it right. But I found this information and found some terms that I don’t remember hearing before like gill? What is a gill? Have you ever heard the word used as a measurement? I hadn’t until recently and then I had to google the word in order to find out what it was, but that was before I found this book.

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

“As many families have no scales for weighing, a table of measures is given which can be used instead. Weighing is always best, but not always convenient. The cup used is the ordinary coffee or kitchen cup, holding half a pint. A set of tin measures, from a gill up to a quart, is very useful in all cooking operations.”—Helen Campbell

1 pound equivalents	1 quart of sifted flour 1 pint of granulated sugar 2 cups of butter packed 10 eggs 5 cups of sifted flour 454 grams (approximately)
Half a gill	A wine-glassful 4 even tablespoons
Gill	8 even tablespoons 1 cup 8 ounces (liquid)
Tablespoon	3 even teaspoonfuls 1 ounce (liquid)
Teaspoon	4 even saltspoonfuls
½ cup	4 tablespoonfuls 4 ounces
1 pint	2 cups
1 quart	2 pints
1 gallon	4 quarts (liquid)
1 peck	8 quarts (dry)
Bushel	4 pecks (dry)
1 ounce	28 grams (approximately)
1 kilo	2 1/10 pounds
1 liter	1 quart (approximately)
1 cup	8 tablespoons 8 ounces (liquid)

I’m going to be honest and admit that I’m still at a loss as to what a gill is because I have also been told that it is a quarter of a pint which would make it equivalent to half a cup measurements instead of 1 cup measurements. So if you look it up, let me know what you find out.

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