Strange Words For Food Amounts

[David A. Goldfarb]

I remember that beer that came in the squat green bottles. They had it in the midwest as well. I thought about "Mickey Finn," but it's a different thing.

"Antimacassar" is a word I use whenever the opportunity presents itself, so I like the idea of its extension to a large quantity of wine.

[lesliec]

"Mess" presumably goes back to Genesis, where Esau sold his birthright for a "mess of pottage" - aka lentil stew. Let us hope they were good Puy lentils, cooked well ...

It should be noted that the interesting names for large wine bottles quoted upthread by Barry are referenced to The Devil's Food Dictionary: A Pioneering Culinary Reference Work Consisting Entirely of Lies. Some of the names mentioned (eg Jeroboam) are familiar but I'm dubious about the larger ones (a quick Googling of 'Malfeasium', for example, returns only this EG thread). The more usual names are:

• Magnum = equivalent to two standard 750ml bottles
  
• Jeroboam = four bottles if it's Champagne or Burgundy; six, if it's Bordeaux
  
• Rehoboam = six bottles if it's Champagne or Burgundy
  
• Methuselah = eight bottles if it's Champagne or Burgundy. In Bordeaux they call it an Impériale
  
• Salmanazar = 12 bottles
  
• Balthazar = 16 bottles
  
• Nebuchadnezzar = 20 bottles
  

(Source is here)

It's always been my ambition to own (and share) a really huge bottle of something, but I haven't managed it yet.

[Blether]

Does "a poke o' chips" count ? We certainly used to use it, though I couldn't say if it's Scotland-specific, UK-wide or Commonwealth-common. Linguistically the same poke in which you might buy a pig.

[thayes1c]

We used to call those small bottles of Mickey's "grenades" when I was in college. Almost as dangerous as the real thing.

[haresfur]

We used to call those small bottles of Mickey's "grenades" when I was in college. Almost as dangerous as the real thing.

I think in Pennsylvania (or at least at Penn State) the small bottles of Rolling Rock are called "ponies".

[kayb]

Miller and Budweiser used to come in 7-oz bottles; I think Miller may still do so. Those were "ponies."

[andiesenji]

We used to call those small bottles of Mickey's "grenades" when I was in college. Almost as dangerous as the real thing.

I found the following http://hunch.com/cheap-beers/mickey-s-big-mouth/1618284/ which may explain the "grenade" concept.

It states the original label included an arm holding a mace, which may explain it.

As a malt liquor it is certainly much stronger than beer.

[Kent Wang]

I have never, ever known what a "fifth" of vodka, gin, etc. meant. I've always assumed it's an imperial liquid measurement, although I've never bothered to look it up. It sounds really dramatic, though, as in - "I went home last night, drank a fifth of gin, and fell asleep in the bathtub." Or similar.

There's the old phrase "If 'if' was a fifth, then we'd all be drunk", to be said in reply to someone complaining that "if only...", etc.

1.75L bottles are called handles, because they often have a handle built into them. 1.75L are quite common in the US, but I think much less so elsewhere.

[SylviaLovegren]

Has anyone mentioned "stoup" or "stoop?"

Several of my medieval recipes specify a stoup or stoop of mead, so it is obviously a liquid measure.

I have no idea the true volume but in reading the recipe it would appear to be somewhere close to a half-gallon.

I also have one rather large recipe that calls for a hogshead of "small" ale.

Not sure how big or small ale is supposed to be but I do know the volume of a hogshead...

"Small" ale or "small" beer is low-alcohol, made at home, the normal beverage is the home and suitable for small children when water was is suspect.

ETA: And I see towerpine beat me to the small beer!

Edited June 5, 2012 by SylviaLovegren (log)

[patrickamory]

I once bought a Salmanazar of Veuve Clicquot for a special New Year's event. It was difficult to wrangle.

I believe that Elizabeth David stuck to her own measurement terminology because she didn't want you to be precise - she wanted you to go by your sense of smell, taste and experience.

[sparrowgrass]

Andie, for as long as I can remember, my mom's laundry basket was (and still is) a wooden bushel basket, lined not with a sheet, but with the skirt of an old dress, red with black print. That dress must be from the fifties, and still on duty.

A 'hand' of bananas--does that count?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

A 'hand' of bananas--does that count?

Only if you consider that the entire bunch is an "arm" (brazo) and that a single banana is a "finger" (dedo.) These are the trade terms, folks!

For me, the oddest ones are from Ecuador. A single clove of garlic is a "tooth" but a whole garlic is a "fist" (and a fist of garlic is very difficult to come by - most places just sell peeled teeth.) And don't get me started on the customary units of weight! I buy flour in arroba sacks - the definition of this being one quarter of the amount a donkey can carry. Arbitrarily, it's either 25 lbs or 25 kg, depending on the merchant. I buy other things by quintales - the quintal being the full donkey-load, 100 lbs or 100 kg, again depending on the merchant. I buy salt in "fistfuls" (5 lbs), and cacao in a unit that I still don't fully understand, but which translates as "grains" - which is odd, because I end up with an even number of pounds, but that amount varies from merchant to merchant.

Edit - that should have read "cacao" not "cocoa" - I buy the latter in kilos.

Edited June 6, 2012 by Panaderia Canadiense (log)

[Beebs]

"Two-fer".

As in "a two-fer of beer", which is Canadian for a 24 pack of beer. Not really a strange word for measurement, but definitely colloquial and commonly used. Although I've never heard it used to refer to anything else but beer....

[David A. Goldfarb]

Carl's Steaks--a Philly cheesesteak joint on E34th st. In Manhattan has five or six kinds of beer--all popular American brands--in those little 7oz. bottles.

[haresfur]

I would like to contribute "punnet," which is the basket-like container you buy berries in. I think it's a British term, I learned it from my Aussie husband. Interestingly, he also uses it for half-gallon containers (or whatever the metric size would be, 2000 ml?) of ice cream.

I can second punnet, always used for soft berries (in the UK at least). Its bigger brother is the chip. You can get around 6 punnets in a chip. It is a minefield of units over here, we have sort of gone metric, but still stick with imperial when we can (just in case metric doesn't catch on?). Large quantities of vegetables (particulary root veg) can be purchased by the stone, which is 14lb. Onions are often purchased by the net.

Cooked shellfish is often purchased by the pint (or half pint).

I still haven't figured out the volume of a punnet - or does it vary?