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MEASURING

The greatest source of confusion in cookery measurements is the American cup. Most English measurements are in weight, but now and again we hear of the English cup. In each case ‘a cup’ is half a pint, but the English pint is 20 oz. and the American pint is 16 oz.

Buy any sort of measure that is marked in ounces. A 10-oz. measure is a convenient size for the average kitchen. Once you have a measure of this sort, the American recipes are easy to understand.

Here are five items showing what one English pound equals in American cups:

Butter	1 lb. = 2 cups
Flour	1 lb. = 41/2 cups
Sugar	1 lb. = 2+ cups
	(brown moist sugar 21/2 cups)
Raw Rice	1 lb. = 2 cups
Crumbs	1 lb. = 4 cups

Another baffling word in recipes is gill. In standard recipe use it means a quarter of a British pint.

French recipes use litres. One litre is 1³/₄ British pints. A demi-litre is half a litre. A deci-litre is a tenth of a litre.

French recipes measure weight in grammes.

100 grammes = 3¹/₂ oz.

1 litre = 500 grammes = 1 lb. 1¹/₂ oz.

1 kilogramme = 1,000 grammes = 2 lb. 3 oz.

BUYING FOOD

Buying food can be confusing. Spinach, for instance, will shrink to almost nothing, while rice can be around the house for days because of miscalculation.

Meat. Buy 8 oz. per head if there is bone in it, and 6 oz. per head if it is without bone. Very lean meat in a rich sauce (e.g. Beef Strogonoff) can have less. Allow 12 oz. per head of the gross weight of chicken, and 4 oz. per head for any liver dish. Fish, as an entrée 6 oz., as a main course 8 oz.

Root Vegetables like carrots and potatoes should be calculated at 6 oz. per head. Double this amount for peas, and for spinach allow 14 oz. per head.

Dried Vegetables (beans, lentils, peas, rice). Allow 2 oz. per head, and the same for pasta, unless it is to be the main course, in which case double it.

Soup. Allowing 8 oz. of soup per person should leave a dribble for some greedy guest to get a second helping.

Dried Fruit. One pound of dried fruit is equal to four pounds of fresh.

SALT

Add half a teaspoon salt to half a pound of meat or to one pint of soup or sauce. For dough put half a teaspoon salt to one pound of flour. Always adjust seasoning before serving.

HEAT

The following figures are most important, especially to cooks using a thermostat control.

Water:	Fast boil 212° F. (Salt water boils at 224° F.)
	Simmer 205° F.
	Slow simmer 180-190° F.
Milk:	Boils at 196° F.

Burning Temperature

Butter	278° F.
Beef Suet	356° F.
Lard	392° F.
Veg. Oil	480-520° F.
Olive Oil	554° F.

Keep temperature below this level when cooking in these fats.