[Sca-cooks] Weights for spices? Apothecary or Standard for otherFood?

[Terry Decker]

I replied to this from the road.  The message was waiting on moderator 
approval and appears to have gone into limbo.

Spices would commonly have been measured by apothecary weights.  If the 
measure is other than apothecary weights, you run into the problem of each 
German state having its own value for the pfund running from about 450 grams 
to 560 grams.  Since Welser uses the term "lott" (Lot), she is probably 
using the pfund rather than the Troyes pound that was the basis of 
apothecary measure.

The pfund is divided into 16 unza or 32 lot.  This would make a lott roughly 
15 grams.  Cassell's German Dictionary gives the value as "approximately 10 
grams," but makes no allowances for the differences in the variation of the 
pfund.  15 grams is also roughly 1/2 of a troy ounce, while 10 grams is just 
under 1/32 (11.66 g) of a troy pound.  I'd probably go with the 15 gram 
measure.

If you have anymore questions, fire away.

Bear

> Hi, I just joined this list after hearing about it for years from various 
> friends.
>
> I'm attempting to recreate several Lebkuchen recipes out of Sabina 
> Welserin's cookbook, written in 1553 in Augsburg. I'm using the original 
> Middle High German text found at Thomas Gloning's site, 
> http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/tx/sawe.htm , because in the English 
> translation weights and measurements for the ingredients don't match up 
> with the period amounts.
>
> In my research, I've been looking into the weights and measures used for 
> various ingredients, and there I've run into a snag. What was used for 
> spices? Apothecary weights or regular weights for food?
>
> Thanks for any help,
> Sophia