Trying to make my great-aunt's biscuit recipe ended with a smoke alarm

I was in my kitchen in Spokane, trying to follow her handwritten card that called for 'a good pinch' of baking powder, which I guessed was a tablespoon. The whole batch turned bitter and set off the smoke detector when they burned at 450 degrees. How do you guys translate those old vague measurements into something you can actually use?

3 comments

3 Comments

luna_sanchez11d ago

Oh man, that's rough... it's like those old recipes assume you already know the secret handshake or something. I've noticed this in other stuff too, like when my grandpa tried to teach me how to fix a car with "just a little turn" on a bolt. It's the same problem with older folks passing down knowledge - they've been doing it so long their measurements are all muscle memory and intuition, not numbers. You almost have to just accept you'll mess up the first few times and write down what actually works...

noah3261mo ago

Guess a tablespoon is way more than a pinch.

richard_ramirez1mo ago

Yeah, like a pinch is just a little sprinkle... but a tablespoon is basically a whole handful of seasoning. Some recipes really don't get the difference.