I was reading through an old recipe book the other day (and by “old”, I mean from two centuries ago), and noticed that more than half the amounts of the ingredients were listed as in “pinches”, “dashes”, or “messes,” “a bunch”, “few”, or “some”. The amount of shortening or butter to use might be “a ball the size of a walnut.” Confusing to today’s cook who likes to make something from scratch and perhaps to cooks back then, too. What if the walnuts in your area were smaller than the ones in the area the recipe came from? What if you measured it against an English walnut rather than a black walnut, or vice versa?
So I did a bit of investigating and googling…and came up with these modern-day explanations of “Granny’s cooking measurements.” And here they are:
A hint 1/2 drop (1/2 drop)
A drop 1/64 teaspoon (1/2 smidgen)
A smidgen 1/32 teaspoon (1/2 pinch)
A pinch 1/16 teaspoon (1/2 dash)
A dash 1/8 teaspoon (1/2 tad)
A tad 1/4 teaspoon
A mess As many as can be measured from midway between the elbow and wrist to mid-way the palm of the hand (usually used for fish)
I also found a recipe for “shoo-fly pie,” you know…the one that “makes your eyes light up and your stomach say ‘Howdy’”. So I’d like to share that, too, with mostly up-dated measurements. (Absolutely no calories, so dig in!)
9” pie shell 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 C flour 1/2 C cold butter
1/2 C dark brown sugar 3/4 C water
1 tsp cinnamon 3/4 C molasses
1/2 tsp nutmeg 1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of ground cloves
Combined flour, sugar, spices, and salt. Cut butter into pats and mash into mixture with a fork until a mixture like coarse crumbs. Combine water, molasses, and baking soda. Pour into pie crust. Spoon crumb mixture onto the liquid. Bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes.
Again according to the song, “You never get enough of this wonderful stuff,” so if you try this recipe, please let me know what you think!
