Suggestion when posting receipes

[Barbaro]

You can't bring back the metric system in the USA because we never used it in the first place. You would need to get us to go to it for the first time.

I am assuming that the reference to grams is a weight rather than a volume measurement?

You're correct, Jane. USA never used it in the first place. I think USA is ready for the metric system, because it's simple. Many Americans struggle to solve problems with fractions.

Yes, grams is a weight for non liquid ingredients. Thanks to gravity. Mass and weight are not the same.

 

[seb]

My mother was a timid cook. It was probably greatly influenced by the fact that she taught school for many years and her mother and one of her sisters were the main cooks in the family while others had outside jobs. So with her not having been the primary cook until she married at 34 almost 35 that makes sense to me. It also means that I grew up with the idea of following recipes with exact measurements. The mother of a close friend, who was also a neighbor, was more like your grandmother.

We had a recipe for christmas cookies that my grandmother had written down with her pinch of this, a pinch of that, three fists of this, etc. and when my mother deciphered it the recipe needed something like 5-1/2 cups of flour.

 

[Jane B.]

We had a recipe for christmas cookies that my grandmother had written down with her pinch of this, a pinch of that, three fists of this, etc. and when my mother deciphered it the recipe needed something like 5-1/2 cups of flour.

You are only a half (½) cup over the amount of flour in one with measurements that I just made. Will post the entire recipe later.

 

[Jane B.]

You are only a half (½) cup over the amount of flour in one with measurements that I just made. Will post the entire recipe later.

Here is the cookie recipe that I promised yesterday. After both of my mother's sisters that had never married had died Mom and I worked with this one that was part of the family recipe collection. There were amounts for everything but the flour and vanilla.

ORIGINAL
1½ Cups Sugar
1 cup Shortening
3 Eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
Vanilla
Flour to roll

Cream sugar & shortening, add eggs, then baking power, vanilla, flour. Roll out & Bake.

AS I CURRENTLY DO IT
1½ Cups sugar
1 Cup butter (=½ lb.) Used salted or now ½ teaspoon salt added to unsalted.
3 Eggs (I use large eggs)
2 Teaspoons baking powder
1 Teaspoon vanilla
5 Cups flour

Cream sugar & butter (with the ½ t. of salt if unsalted butter). Add eggs, then baking powder, vanilla and flour. Roll and cut or put through cookie press. Bake at 350° for 12 to 15 minutes rotating cookie sheet half way through.

THOUGHTS ABOUT CHANGES

Original said shortening even though labeled "Butter Cookies" and I have no idea why. Until recently I used salted butter because I have no memory of seeing unsalted butter at the grocery store years ago. I recently came across a tip about using a ¼ teaspoon of salt per ¼ lb. stick of butter and it seems to have them come out the same. For the flour it just said "flour to roll" . My thought about that is that in the days before AC the amount needed would be affected by how humid a day it was. I have no idea why the amount of vanilla was not given! For temperature to bake at 350° F seemed a pretty common temp. for baking cookies and has worked just fine. Of course, time needed will vary from oven to oven.

 

[DeafDucky]

Original said shortening even though labeled "Butter Cookies" and I have no idea why.

If the recipe was used during World War II, might be because butter was rationed and in short supply so shortening was substituted.

 

[Jane B.]

If the recipe was used during World War II, might be because butter was rationed and in short supply so shortening was substituted.

The people involved were alive then but I have no way of knowing how far back it really goes — it could be even older. But to call it Butter Cookies when it has no butter at all in it? How about Butter Style Cookies? I happen to look on through the recipe box that it is in and don't remember any of the other butter cookie recipes not having butter in them; but I wasn't checking for that this morning.