measurements: a glug, a splash and a handful

I use exact measurements when necessary, for tempeh and yogurt...but I love and tend to use more descriptive measurements when I can get away with it.

Like a glug, a splash and a handful

And a pinch, a shake or two and a dollop.

I think 'a teacup' as used in old recipes meant the nice small china ones.

Theres one for a chunk of butter that I can't remember.

Can anyone think of more?

Are these measurements universal?

Judith Browning wrote:.....

Can anyone think of more?

Are these measurements universal?

I like to use "glop" for things like softened butter or sour cream even as 'dollop' appears pretty universal for this measurement.  In the lab where I worked, when students asked how much of some item we needed for a chemistry experiment, I enjoyed watching their confused faces as I said "one metric shitload"  .....just to get them accustomed to scientific units of measure.

In my home growing up the measurements for making ice cream topping include a glub,(not glug) of corn syrup.

Seasoning things included a dash(2 good shakes roughly) and a mite(might?)(about 2 to 3 dashes).

Adding grain to an animals feed included a bit.(roughly 2 handfuls with hands held together)

I probably use the `chunk` of butter when seasoning vegetables as I just take out the butter and slice off a chunk.

I use a pinch of salt a lot. And I use a shake of pepper.

Otherwise, I don't use those other terms.

I do remember the old recipes with a tea cup of sugar.

John Weiland wrote:

Judith Browning wrote:.....

Can anyone think of more?

Are these measurements universal?

I like to use "glop" for things like softened butter or sour cream even as 'dollop' appears pretty universal for this measurement.  In the lab where I worked, when students asked how much of some item we needed for a chemistry experiment, I enjoyed watching their confused faces as I said "one metric shitload"  .....just to get them accustomed to scientific units of measure.

Yes, glop! I forgot that one.
I like the 'metric shitload'

C. Letellier wrote:In my home growing up the measurements for making ice cream topping include a glub,(not glug) of corn syrup.

Seasoning things included a dash(2 good shakes roughly) and a mite(might?)(about 2 to 3 dashes).

Adding grain to an animals feed included a bit.(roughly 2 handfuls with hands held together)

Good ones!
'Glub' must be a mutation of 'glop' and 'glug' and 'glob'

Anne Miller wrote:I probably use the `chunk` of butter when seasoning vegetables as I just take out the butter and slice off a chunk.

I use a pinch of salt a lot. And I use a shake of pepper.

Otherwise, I don't use those other terms.

I do remember the old recipes with a tea cup of sugar.

Anne, I think the butter measurement I was trying to remember from old recipes was ' a walnut size piece of butter'.
I imagine it meant a black walnut?
Although I use 'chunk' as you do.

Unless there's an exact science like baking involved that is how I measure everything. Trying to teach my very literal son what a pinch or dash is has been challenging but he is starting to realize it's up to his taste.

I call it a slab of butter

Judith Browning wrote:Are these measurements universal?

I too have wondered if there is a regional or perhaps even familial component to these? E.g., A slab of butter is different for me than it is for my wife. We both learned to cook in different environments.

A couple of terms I've used would be a dollop, a smidge, a tad.

I believe I remember reading somewhere about types of salt and how they affect what chefs consider a pinch to be. That's one of the reasons kosher salt is popular in cooking - you can easily take a pinch. Taking a pinch of finely ground table salt is much more difficult (and probably is a different measurement).

Off on a tangent, but this is similar to the debate about whether to use weights to measure things like flour. Weighing something is more universal, but if you are following your great-great-grandma's recipe where she called for a cup of flour, weighing your flour wouldn't be very appropriate. Who knows if great-great-grammy spooned and leveled her flour or took a heaping, dense scoop out of the flour bin. This is where passing down recipes in-person comes into play.

I had always called it a 'pat' of butter, meaning a slice of a stick approximately 1/8"-1/4" thick. These days cooking family-sized meals it is usually just a quarter half or whole stick.

For dry ingredients I use shake, pinch, palmful, handful, fistful if accuracy isn't necessary.

The "drop" is a fun measurement. It turns out that, if you take your time with a dropper, you can form a pretty standard sized drop of water. This is because the surface tension of the water dictates how big the drop is. For years a drop was defined as 1/480 of a fluid ounce. Even today the drop is defined as 1/20 of a milliliter, The wikipedia article has more information.

when you do this in other languages it gets even more fun.
when i was learning portuguese i had access to some old cookbooks, which used not the teacups but the saucers ('pires') to measure flour, usually. slightly more modern ones often used something relatively standard (occasionally the tin of condensed milk, or the cup that cheese spread comes in, but generally the teacup). 'american' measuring cups are only available widely in stores in the last 10 years or so (and that's what they call them, american cups).
then there is the thread of olive oil.... (a drizzle), dessert/tea/coffee spoon vs soup spoon (different spoon sizes than I was used to)...

I personally do a lot of eyeball measuring for small measures of dry goods like spices, and most of my liquid ingredients for stir frying have dispenser tops, so i'll do a good glug of soy sauce, or three shakes of vinegar, etc.

Ezra Byrne wrote:I had always called it a 'pat' of butter, meaning a slice of a stick approximately 1/8"-1/4" thick. These days cooking family-sized meals it is usually just a quarter half or whole stick.

For dry ingredients I use shake, pinch, palmful, handful, fistful if accuracy isn't necessary.

Now how much is a "stick" of butter?!

Nancy Reading wrote:

Ezra Byrne wrote:I had always called it a 'pat' of butter, meaning a slice of a stick approximately 1/8"-1/4" thick. These days cooking family-sized meals it is usually just a quarter half or whole stick.

For dry ingredients I use shake, pinch, palmful, handful, fistful if accuracy isn't necessary.

Now how much is a "stick" of butter?!

Here, in the USA a stick is a quarter pound.
Most butter is sold by the pound in individually wrapped 'sticks'.

But....I don't know if that's where 'stick' originated as a measurement?

In my mind, a "pat" of butter is about 1/4 in thick by about 1" square. A "knob" (probably the term OP was trying to remember) is about 1" square. I put a pat of butter on an english muffin, and cook eggs with a knob of butter.

Nancy Reading wrote:

Ezra Byrne wrote:I had always called it a 'pat' of butter, meaning a slice of a stick approximately 1/8"-1/4" thick. These days cooking family-sized meals it is usually just a quarter half or whole stick.

For dry ingredients I use shake, pinch, palmful, handful, fistful if accuracy isn't necessary.

Now how much is a "stick" of butter?!

stick is 8 table spoons.
Jack & Jill are also interesting measures. Jack is about 1/2 pint Jill (Gill) is about 1/4 pint.

side note: Jack & Jill nursery rhyme was about the king wanting to raise taxes on alcohol, since Parliament didn't want to raise taxes, Charles I (mid 1700's),  made the unit of measurement Jack smaller. By lowering the imperial measure of the half-pint line, which was indicated by a crown symbol.  Jack "lost his crown" and a reduced volume on the Gill soon followed or "came tumbling after. Since those that made fun of the royals were often tossed in jail, They made a nursery rhyme about it to poke fun at the policy without actually saying so.

I ran into something interesting that is topic-adjacent that might interest some people.

I just recently found out that prior to temperature gauges, there were different descriptions for how hot ovens were for cooking! It makes sense with how technology used to be, but I never had to deal with it.

I saw descriptions of a 'Slow Oven', 'Moderate Oven', and 'Fast Oven'.

Pretty neat

Those sound like the perfect term for describing a wood cooking stove ...

Found this of interest:

I also love these.

My mom has formal kitchen certifications, and worked in test kitchens.

I think in rebellion, all of her cooking "recipes" are heavily comprised of approximations. Drives people absolutely bonkers when they ask for her "recipe" for something. To be honest, even our baking is often, umm, a bit improvised.
.
My mom's famous caesar salad recipe:
2 egg yolks
A pinch of salt
A few twists of the pepper grinder
A couple cloves of minced garlic
15 shakes of tobasco sauce
10 splashes of worchestershire sauce
A squirt of dijon mustard.

Pour in vegetable oil, slowly, while whisking enthusiastically in bottom of a big bowl, until it thickens and reaches thin mayonnaise consisency but does not break.  

Whisk in

A glug or two of lemon juice. (about half a lemon)
Very optional- a smashed anchovy

Adjust seasoning to taste.

Immediately before plating:

Toss a large cut up romaine head in the sauce

Then a generous amount of parmesan...

Croutons, if desired.


Other commonly used ones in my life: a dollup. A capful. A palmful. A "goodly _____" (larger than normal ______). A heaping spoonful. A "thumb" (-sized portion - think, thumb of butter, thumb of ginger), a titch.