INTRODUCTORY HINTS.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.
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.