On 18/06/2014 6:11 AM, bluechick wrote:
On Tue, 17 Jun 2014 15:21:12 +1000, Fran Farmer
wrote:

Yep. I have a huge leather bound book which I've been using to record
my recipes since soon after metric measures were introduced in this
country. A lot of my recipes came from my Mum and of course she cooked
exclusively with Imperial measures.

In the early days I used scales that did either Imperial or Metric so if
I needed 4 ounces then the scales told me that. Over time and the
replacement of equipment, I've had to go through and update all of the
measures with metric.

Sometimes, even now, I will locate a recipe that includes only Imperial
measures so I know it's been a very, very long time since I've cooked
that recipe.

I've been fortunate enough to be sent some lovely British recipes and
I have to convert the quantities and temperatures, but I don't mind
since those conversions aren't that difficult. But, as we've noted
above thread, things like "stick of butter" and "Gas Mark 7" are
head-scratchers to those who aren't familiar with those terms.

I collected vintage recipes for awhile and have used some but some
have been unusable due to the way they'd measure things 100 or 200
years ago - not to mention weird ingredients, spice blends usually,
that were in use in ancient Roman or Medieval recipes. I've run
across things like a 'dessert spoon of sugar' (now I know it's about 2
teaspoons), a 'square of chocolate' (still in use and I hate that one
the most - if it's an ounce SAY 1 ounce!), a 'finger of rum' etc. I've
seen "finger" used as a measure in more recent recipes but I still
don't know what it means. And whose finger?

:-)) Imagine wrapping your hand around the base of a the sort of
tumbler from which someone would drink neat whisky or whisky and water
or whisky and ice. Your fingers wrapped horizontally around the glass
would probably be a bit over half an inch high. That is what they mean
by a finger of rum.