[Sca-cooks] Drachma Weight

[Terry Decker]

>Le Menagier's recipe for Pouldre Fine in Scully and Scully in "Early
>French Cookery" calls for 1 ounce and 1 drachma of ginger. However,
>the authors appear not to address the drachma weight (at least i
>can't find an explanation).
>
>Checking The Florilegium
>http://www.florilegium.org/files/COMMERCE/measures-art.html
>I found:
>Dram - A weight, orig. the ancient Greek drachma; hence, in
>Apothecaries' weight, a weight of 60 grains = 1/8 of an ounce; in
>Avoirdupois weight, of 27.13 grains = 1/16 of an ounce; = drachm
>
>What i want to verify is WHICH is being used in Le Menagier,
>Apothecaries' weight or Avoirdupois (since one weighs about twice the
>other).

Use the apothecaries' measure.  It is the system used to weigh spices at the
time.

>
>Also, i am led to believe that in this case a livre = 12 ounces.
>
>For most spice blend recipes, this doesn't matter - when they give
>quantities, they are given all given in ounces. But Le Menagier uses
>both ounces and dramchae, and i want to keep the proportions correct.
>
>Thanks again,
>Anahita

The French livre is a pound of 16 ounces which was standardized in 1350 to
approximately 1.079 pounds avoirdupois or 489.5 grams.

Bear