Deciphering Old Recipes

One of the reasons that I love historic cooking, baking and food history research is because it is simply so much fun to read through old recipes and try to decipher them! It can really get comical the further back in history you go! 🙂

Perhaps you have heard too of how frustrating historic cooking can be. What do you do after all when the recipe says put the cake into the hot oven and bake until done? What are some of those old ingredients anyway? Anyone ever heard of where I can get isinglass in the modern world today? How about a cone of sugar? And what after all is ye olde gill measurement?

Figuring out what or how much an old measurement is in our modern times is probably the hardest part of historic cooking! If you have ever been curious about what some of those old measurments are, here are a few of the most common ones that you will see!

Gill – A quarter of a pint or 1/2 cup
Wineglass – about 1/4 cup
Teacup – 1/2 cup
Glassful – 1 cup
Hen’s egg size – 3 -4 Tbsp
Hogshead – 63 gallons
Pinch – about 1/8 teaspoon

And for a good laugh, here is a wonderful video about the joys and trials of historical cooking! 🙂