SC - Teacups (was re: An Elderly Cookbook)
Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net
Sun Apr 16 07:35:13 PDT 2000
And it came to pass on 16 Apr 00,, that Stefan li Rous wrote:
> Lady Brighid answered my question with:
> > The sources I've seen on the web seem to consider a teacupful to be
> > somewhere around 4-6 fluid ounces.
>
> Thank you, Brighid. I know what a teacup is and there are probably some in
> my mother's china or in the china that was her mothers but I don't have
> any teacups here at my house. Lots of coffee mugs yes, teacups, no.
You're welcome. I have some teacups, but only because I inherited a
lovely set of Royal Doulton from my husband's grandmother. When I
drink tea or coffee, I like a mug big enough to swim in. :-)
>The measurement in ounces or fractions of a cup was indeed what I was curious
> about.
I've been struggling with a similar problem in Spanish cuisine. There's a
kind of bowl called an escudilla which is mentioned in darn near every
recipe. Most often it's used as a synonym for servings, ie., "and for five
dishes take a pound of toasted almonds...". But in some recipes, it's
actually used as a measurement, "take half an escudilla of
rosewater...". As far as I can tell, it's not a defined unit of
measurement; escudillas were pretty standardized in size and shape,
and anyone who would be reading a cookbook would have one (or
many) in their cupboard.
I emailed an archaeologist who is the author of a detailed article on 15th
and 16th century escudillas and briefly explained my problem. And I
used the example of "teacupful" in 19th century cookbooks -- just about
everyone had a teacup in her cupboard. Alas, I don't have an escudilla
in mine. He was about to leave for a conference, but promised to send
me a copy of his article, which contains detailed descriptions. Maybe
I'll send him a "thank you" package of bizcochos...
Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net
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