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Weights and Measures Chart Measurements:
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1 wineglass = 1/4 cup
> 1 jigger = 1.5 fluid ounces
> 1 gill = 1/2 cup
> 1 teacup = a scant 3/4 cup
> 1 coffeecup = a scant cup
> 1 tumbler = 1 cup
> 1 pint - 2 cups
> 1 quart = 4 cups
> 1 peck = 2 gallons - dry
>1 pinch or dash = what can be picked up between thumb and first two fingers; less than 1/8 teaspoon
> 1/2 pinch = what can be picked up between thumb and one finger
> 1 saltspoon = 1/4 teaspoon
> 1 kitchen spoon = 1 teaspoon
> 1 dessert spoon = 2 teaspoons or 1 soupspoon
> 1 spoonful = 1 Tablespoon more or less
> 1 saucer = 1 heaping cup (about)
Temperatures:
> Very slow oven = below 300 degrees F.
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Slow oven = 300 degrees F.
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Moderately slow oven = 325 degrees F.
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Moderate oven = 350 degrees F.
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Moderately hot oven = 375 degrees F.
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Quick oven = 375 - 400 degrees F.
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Hot oven = 400-425 degrees F.
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Very hot oven = 450-475 degrees F.
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Extremely hot oven = 500 degrees F. or more
Common Weights:
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1 penny weight = 1/20 ounce
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1 drachm = 1/8 ounce
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60 drops thick fluid = 1 teaspoon
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1 ounce = 4-1/2 Tablespoons allspice, cinnamon, curry , paprika or dry mustard or 4 Tablespoons cloves or prepared mustard or 3-1/2 Tablespoons nutmeg or pepper or 3 Tablespoons sage, cream of tartar or cornstarch or 2 Tablespoons salt or any liquid
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1 pound = 2 cups liquid; or 4 cups flour ; or 8 medium eggs with shells
or 10 eggs without shells; or 2 cups granulated sugar; or 2-1/3 cups packed brown sugar; or 3-3/4 cups unsifted confectioner's sugar
or 4-1/2 cups sifted confectioner's sugar; or 4 cups grated cabbage, cranberries, coffee or chopped celery; or 3 cups corn meal; or 2 cups uncooked rice; or 2-3/4 cups raisins or dried currants
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Butter the size of a egg = 1/4 cup or 2 ounces
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Butter the size of a walnut = 1 Tablespoon
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Butter the size of a hazelnut = 1 teaspoon
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Bread Recipes Bread has been a food staple since the beginning of recorded time. The ancient Egyptians baked bread before the 20th century B.C. Fragments of unleavened bread have been unearthed among the ruins of the Swiss Lake Dwellers in the earliest civilized communities of Europe. There were public ovens in the Republic of Rome and the bakers of Greece were world famous. Bread has been referred to as the staff of life. It has been written that a substance called manna was sent down from Heaven to feed the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness. "And it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made of honey." Bread was made at home or in small bakeries until the end of the 19th century.
Shortly thereafter, bread factories made their appearance. Mixing machines, chain conveyors for carrying the dough, cooling and slicing machines, temperature-controlled ovens, and other time-saving devices replaced the bakers.
Around World War II, a whiter flour was introduced that successfully eliminated all the vitamins and minerals from the flour. The U.S. Government, as a public health measure, required that the missing vitamins and minerals be replaced. This was the beginning of the "Enriched White Bread"
As the years passed, most of the small bakeries all but disappeared. We would be forced into buying this white cottony substance that had no taste or smell. It weighed so little that one could easily carry three loaves at a time. If you were to squeeze it, the dent would remain. If the sandwich filling was moist, like chicken salad, the bread would shrink to the thickness of one quarter of an inch.
When one goes to the supermarket today, we are advised to read the ingredients, a long tongue twisting, bewildering list of chemical additives. Many of us do so with a sense of helpless confusion. This scientific list of elements are largely unknown to us. They are written in the smallest print possible on a cake or bread wrapper of see-through plastic. We are assured that these ingredients mean us no harm, that they enhance the flavor, prevent the goodies from spoiling, and also add to the looks of the finished product.
Who are we, the citizens of the United States, to doubt the wholesomeness of said item, guaranteed by the authority vested in the United States Department of Agriculture?
Use the recipes in this section (click here) in good health and reintroduce your family to the "Staff of life".
Fermented And Pickled Foods
Pickles fermented naturally with only sea salt, garlic, and dill weed, are different than pickles made with vinegar. The natural taste and texture is sour, tart, crisp and full of flavour, and most of all, delicious and good for you!! Naturally fermented Sauerkraut or KimChee is replete with vitamins,minerals the stuff that builds healthy humans. These are living foods that sustain human existance without the "beneift" of drugs or chemicals.
Use the recipes in this section (click here) in good health and reintroduce your family to the living foods.
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Meat; fish and fowl My favorite animal is steak.
Fran Lebowitz
'And [Peter] saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth: wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.' (Acts 10: 1113.)
The word meat comes from the Old English word mete, which referred to food in general. The term is related to mad in Danish, mat in Swedish and Norwegian, and matur in Icelandic, which also mean 'food'. The word "mete" also exists in Old Frisian (and to a lesser extent, modern West Frisian) to denote important food, differentiating it from "swiets" (sweets) and "dierfied" (animal feed).
One definition that refers to meat as not including fish developed over the past few hundred years and has religious influences. The distinction between fish and "meat" is codified by the Jewish dietary law of kashrut, regarding the mixing of milk and meat, which does not forbid the mixing of milk and fish. Modern Jewish legal practice (halakha) on kashrut classifies the flesh of both mammals and birds as "meat"; fish are considered to be parve, neither meat nor a dairy food. The Catholic dietary restriction on "meat" on Fridays also does not apply to the cooking and eating of fish.
All this is very interesting, but my only question is; "What's for dinner?"
Use the recipes in this section (click here) in good health and reintroduce your family eating meat.
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Sausages; Boudin; Terrines and Pate's
Sausage has been an important item in man's diet for twenty centuries. The first recognisable mention of this meat food is found in a Greek play called "The Orya," or "The Sausage," written about 500 B.C. Thereafter the word for sausage occurs with frequency in Greek writings. It's also a favourite food of the Romans, at one time becoming so popular for festive occasions that it was placed under the ban of the early church.
The modern word "sausage" is derived from the Latin ~salsus~, meaning salted. The term was probably originally applied to cured or salted meat generally. In the days of old people did not have refrigeration to preserve their meat and so making sausage was a way of overcoming this problem.
Dry sausage was born as a result of the discovery of new spices, which helped to enhance, flavour and preserve the meat. Different countries and different cities within those countries started producing their own distinctive types of sausage, both fresh and dry. These different types of sausage were mostly influenced by the availability of ingredients as well as the climate.
Some parts of the world with periods of cold climate, such as northern Europe were able to keep their fresh sausage without refrigeration, during the cold months. They also developed a process of smoking the sausage to help preserve the meat during the warmer months. The hotter climates in the south of Europe developed dry sausage, which did not need refrigeration at all.
Basically people living in particular areas developed their own types of sausage and that sausage became associated with the area. For example Bologna originated in the town of Bologna in Northern Italy, Lyons sausage from Lyons in France and Berliner sausage from Berlin in Germany.
It has been said that those who love democracy and sausage should not watch either being made... I disagree when it comes to sausage. Use the recipes in this section (click here) in good health and reintroduce your family eating everything except the squeel.
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Barbeque and Smoking To barbecue means to slow-cook meat at a low temperature for a long time over wood or charcoal. In America, barbecue (or BBQ) originated in the late 1800's during Western cattle drives. The cowboys were fed the less than perfect cuts of meat, often brisket, a tough and stringy piece of meat that required five to seven hours of cooking to tenderize. Other barbecue meats used were pork butt, pork ribs, beef ribs, venison and goat.
However, barbecue was not invented in America and no one knows who invented the barbecue. The word 'Barbecue' might come from the Taino Indian word 'barbacoa' meaning meat-smoking apparatus. 'Barbecue' could have also originated from the French word "Barbe a queue" which means "whiskers-to-tail." No one is sure of the correct origins of the word.
Use the recipes in this section (click here) in good health and reintroduce your family eating stuff cook over fire and smokey wood.
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Long-Term Food Storage Recipes "Store what you use, Use what you store." This is the best advice I've heard when it comes to a practical approach to food storage. Without this practical rule of thumb it's easy to waste time, money and food on things your family will not consume.
Food Storage is an essential element in being prepared and self-reliant. Whether you have your food storage collected to last 7years or you're just getting started with 50 lbs of flour and 25 lbs of dried beans, now is the time to begin practicing cooking with your long-term foodstuffs.
Usethe recipes and resources in this section (click here) to store what you eat and eat what you store.
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