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Cookery books

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Re: Cookery books

Postby KeenCook2 » Thu Sep 24, 2020 6:54 pm

:lol: as I read "acres", Sue, I thought to myself "and 1760 yards in a mile" - and then read the rest of your post :lol:

Wasn't a chain 22 yards?

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Re: Cookery books

Postby Earthmaiden » Thu Sep 24, 2020 8:35 pm

Must admit I still think in acres but rarely hectares and wouldn't recognise a rod, pole or perch if I tripped over one.

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Re: Cookery books

Postby Pepper Pig » Thu Sep 24, 2020 8:49 pm

KeenCook2 wrote:

Wasn't a chain 22 yards?


It was. In school PE we had to practise walking a cricket pitch! There was also a thing about the height of a tennis net being done with rackets on their side. But I can’t remember how many or what the measurement equated to.

Lots of property is sold with acreage mentioned still.

All the school athletics I ever did was in yards, feet and inches. My 94 year old aunt still holds the school record for the 75 yard girl’s dash. :lol:

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Re: Cookery books

Postby Stokey Sue » Thu Sep 24, 2020 9:09 pm

Tennis net
1 racquet upright, vertical, with the end of the handle resting on the ground. Second racquet horizontal, head resting on the head of the first, in the. centre where the tape loop held the net steady.

The daft thing about this is that there was no standard size for tennis racquets, possibly a maximum :lol:

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Re: Cookery books

Postby karadekoolaid » Thu Sep 24, 2020 9:56 pm

We´ve got something else in common, Pepper: cricket. I´ve been a cricket maniac since I started playing at the age of 13.
I´ve never been able to get my head around an acre. Or a hectare, for that matter. I just can´t seem to visualise the space.
But getting back to Cookery Books and weights /measures, I checked my 1909 version of Mrs Beeton, just to see what she had:

Image

I´m now even more confused!! Teacup? Breakfast cup? How much is "heaped"?

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Re: Cookery books

Postby Amyw » Thu Sep 24, 2020 11:27 pm

I’ve just gone through the new Jamie book and have to agree with the general consensus that it’s really good . I like the concept of each chapter being around one ingredient and think it’s a good idea , so when you get your chicken out or need to use your broccoli up , you can go straight to that chapter .

There’s some old favourites in there , plus a few nice little twists . Look forward to cooking from it

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Re: Cookery books

Postby karadekoolaid » Fri Sep 25, 2020 2:46 pm

I recently read an interview JO did, where he revealed that each recipe in his books cost £1,800 ! Testing, tasting, specifying, etc. That´s pretty impressive.

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Re: Cookery books

Postby Suelle » Fri Sep 25, 2020 3:10 pm

karadekoolaid wrote:
But getting back to Cookery Books and weights /measures, I checked my 1909 version of Mrs Beeton, just to see what she had

I´m now even more confused!! Teacup? Breakfast cup? How much is "heaped"?


'Heaped' is how much you can add to the cup, without it falling off the sides! Easier to do it with sugar and flour than with butter, though.

I think it all dates back to the times when dry goods were bought by the sack and decanted off into big earthenware (vermin proof) pots, and were just scooped out when needed. My mother had a flour bin which must have held the equivalent of a dozen bags of flour. I also believe that that is why cup measurements persisted longer in the USA and Australia - pioneer women would have sacks of food supplies but probably no scales amongst their belongings. Everyone had a cup.

Breakfast cup and teacup aren't confusing though, because she tells you that a breakfast cup is twice the volume of a teacup.

One thing it does show though, is that baking isn't as precise a science as many bakers would have you believe - not everyone's 'heaped' would be the same. Alternatively, it might explain why there were so many bad cooks around, although many people who complain that their mother or grandmother was a bad cook, will often add... but she was a good baker.
Traditional home baking, and more:
http://mainlybaking.blogspot.co.uk/

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Re: Cookery books

Postby Pepper Pig » Fri Sep 25, 2020 3:13 pm

Amyw wrote: so when you get your chicken out or need to use your broccoli up , you can go straight to that chapter .



Much though I love Jamie, and I’m a big fan, I find the constant use of “your” instead of “the” very irritating. He’s not the only culprit and I suspect it’s here to stay.

I may be cooking a chicken for someone else and it belongs to them . . . . .

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Re: Cookery books

Postby Stokey Sue » Fri Sep 25, 2020 3:28 pm

Suelle wrote:Breakfast cup and teacup aren't confusing though, because she tells you that a breakfast cup is twice the volume of a teacup.


Which is very confusing to me, :? as my oldest cook books specify that a breakfast cup is 8 fl oz and a teacup 6 fl Oz - presumably they are going for a really big cup or mug of 10 oz and assuming that a teacup is 5oz - I used to assume those chunky white mugs were 10 fl oz and it worked

Metrication is definitely a good idea it seems

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Re: Cookery books

Postby Suelle » Fri Sep 25, 2020 3:37 pm

Stokey Sue wrote:
Suelle wrote:Breakfast cup and teacup aren't confusing though, because she tells you that a breakfast cup is twice the volume of a teacup.


Which is very confusing to me, :? as my oldest cook books specify that a breakfast cup is 8 fl oz and a teacup 6 fl Oz - presumably they are going for a really big cup or mug of 10 oz and assuming that a teacup is 5oz - I used to assume those chunky white mugs were 10 fl oz and it worked

Metrication is definitely a good idea it seems


I think most cooks in those days would probably only work from one source, so at least things were consistent, even if different to the cook next door. :lol:
Traditional home baking, and more:
http://mainlybaking.blogspot.co.uk/

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Re: Cookery books

Postby Pampy » Fri Sep 25, 2020 7:33 pm

When my mum taught me to bake when I was young (50/60s), nothing was weighed - we just used a tablespoon and teaspoon.

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Re: Cookery books

Postby karadekoolaid » Fri Sep 25, 2020 7:43 pm

These days I convert everything into metric. I was making pasta the other day and the recipe called for 1 cup of flour and 1 of semolina - 140gms and 160gms respectively.
Even teaspoons and tablespoons are converted, because a single measurement is necessary when costing a recipe.

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Re: Cookery books

Postby Stokey Sue » Fri Sep 25, 2020 8:07 pm

My mum weighed and measured

Would have been a bit worrying if she hadn't, as she was a pharmacist, trained in the days when prescriptions were recipes that had to be made up using accurate measures :lol:

I tend to weigh everything, partly because the display on the scales is so clear

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Re: Cookery books

Postby PatsyMFagan » Sun Sep 27, 2020 9:13 pm

KeenCook2 wrote:
Pepper Pig wrote:Does anyone else remember the school exercise books we used to get with all the various measurements/quantities listed on the back. I swear it's the only time I ever saw rod, pole and perch mentioned.

But, being a cricket afficionado, I do know what a chain is. 8-) 8-) 8-)


Yes, I certainly do! I think I even may still have one somewhere! I must look for it :lol:


I think allotments are still measured in one of these, although not sure which :roll:

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Re: Cookery books

Postby cherrytree » Sun Sep 27, 2020 10:16 pm

And on the farming pages of the local paper, land for sale is often in acres

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Re: Cookery books

Postby scullion » Mon Sep 28, 2020 12:40 am

Suelle wrote:it might explain why there were so many bad cooks around, although many people who complain that their mother or grandmother was a bad cook, will often add... but she was a good baker.

my mother was neither a good cook nor a good baker. i spent the weeks before my parents 25th wedding anniversary filling the freezer with party food baking so the food at the party would be edible!
i think for many women, of her age, rationing was partly to blame for not learning to cook.

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Re: Cookery books

Postby Stokey Sue » Mon Sep 28, 2020 1:26 am

My maternal grandmother married late having had a career. and continued working in her husband’s business. She couldn’t cook, but employed one as she worked

So mum couldn’t cook, apart from cakes the one thing Cook taught her, married in 1944, learned to cook from rationing leaflets. It was Grimm occasionally but improved with help from tv and Sunday papers

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Re: Cookery books

Postby Sakkarin » Mon Sep 28, 2020 9:37 pm

My mum was a dreadful cook, I wonder if there's a correlation - that foodies either have fabulous foodie parents or complete kitchen disaster ones. My mum may have been dreadful, but my father never cooked anything in his life, to my knowledge. He was old school, "Men don't cook or do housework". Anyone have anything in between?

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Re: Cookery books

Postby miss mouse » Mon Sep 28, 2020 9:51 pm

Mother a ghastly cook, she rarely even remembered to feed us.

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