[Sca-cooks] dram?

[Decker, Terry D.]

My recommendation is get scales that use gram measures and translate into
the metric system.

The Troy grain is 1/480th of a Troy ounce and is equivalent to 64.79891
milligrams.  Theoretically, the English systems are derived from the Troy
measures, so the grain is essentially equal in all European systems of
measure.  There is a discrepancy in that the English initially used the
barleycorn as the grain and the rest of Europe used a grain of wheat, but
given the complexities of translating between barleycorn and wheat, just
forget it and use the standard metric equivalent.  There are some other
discrepencies between various the various systems, but they shouldn't cause
any problems in the kitchen.

In the Troy system, there are 480 grains in an ounce (31.1035 grams) and 12
ounces in a pound (373.242 grams).

The apothecary, jewellers, and money exchange systems which are based on
Troy measures further divided this into 24 grains = 1 pennyweight, 20
pennyweights = 1 ounce.  Additionally, 20 grains = 1 scruple, 3 scruples = 1
dram, and 8 drams = 1 ounce.

Note that the Troy system is designed to handle weights, not fluid volumes.
A fluid dram is 1/8 of a fluid ounce.  The actual weight and volume vary
between systems.

Bear

> I have been looking at a number of recipes that I would like
> to try that have measurements in grains.
>
> I would like to try them, but I dont know how to go about
> measuring them. Do I need to get an apothocary scale? Will
> the measurements have changed since the time the recipe was written?
>
> Ilia
>
> > Since you are talking 15th Century medical recipe, it will
> be in apothecary
> > measure.  The dram is 1/8 of an apothecary ounce (480 grains) or
> > approximately 3.89 grams.  In fluid measure it is approximately 3.7
> > milliliters.
> >
> > There is variation between the apothecary dram and the
> avoirdupois dram.
> > Most references will give 1 dram = 1 teaspoon and that will
> work, but the US
> > teaspoon is actually closer to 1 1/3 drams.
> >
> > Bear