Old measures and abbreviations in handwritten recipes and documents

When you decipher an old cookbook or an old document, the Gothic script is only one challenge. The other is the old measures and abbreviations that nobody uses any more. This article helps you understand them.

Old Danish measures

Before the metric system, people used measures such as pund (a pound, about 500 g), lod (about 15 g), kvint and pægl (a liquid measure, about 0.24 litres). Recipes often say »et halvt Pund Smør« (half a pound of butter) or »en Pægl Fløde« (a pægl of cream). Knowing the conversions is essential if you want to bake grandmother's cake from the original.

Typical abbreviations

Because whoever wrote it down did so for themselves, old recipes teem with abbreviations that are never explained: »Spsk.« for tablespoon, »tsk.« for teaspoon, »Pd.« for pound. Quantities are often loose - »to taste« or »as usual« appears where today there would be a precise instruction.

More than food

A handwritten cookbook is often also a family chronicle, with notes, dates and greetings between the recipes. Read more on our page about deciphering old recipes.

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