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 no one uses any longer. This article helps you understand them – so you can both read the lines and grasp what they actually mean.

Old Danish measures

Before the metric system, people used measures such as pund (pound, ca. 500 g), lod (ca. 15,6 g), kvint and pægl (a measure of volume for liquids, ca. 0,24 liter). Recipes often say »half a Pound of Butter« or »a Pægl of Cream«. Knowing the conversion is crucial if you want to bake grandmother's cake from the original.

The system fits together nicely once you know the pieces. A pund was divided into 32 lod, and each lod into 4 kvint – so the weight ran from the large down to the very smallest amounts of spice. Liquids were measured in pægl, pot and kande, while dry goods such as flour and grain were measured in skæppe (bushel) and tønde (barrel). Here are the most important old Danish measures gathered together:

Weight: 1 pund ca. 500 g · 1 pund = 32 lod (1 lod ca. 15,6 g) · 1 lod = 4 kvint (1 kvint ca. 4 g)
Volume (liquids): 1 pægl ca. 0,24 liter · 1 pot ca. 0,97 liter (1 pot = 4 pægle) · 1 kande = 2 potter
Dry goods: flour and grain were measured in skæppe and tønde (1 tønde = 8 skæpper)
Length: 1 alen ca. 0,63 m · 1 alen = 2 fod · 1 fod = 12 tommer

If you compare the figures with the »pund« and »lod« that German and Swedish relatives used, you will discover small differences from country to country. If the terms appear in a mixture of Danish and Gothic script, it can help to read our guide to deciphering Gothic script alongside.

Typical abbreviations

Because the person writing did so for themselves, old recipes teem with abbreviations that are never explained: »Spsk.« for tablespoon, »tsk.« for teaspoon, »Pd.« for pund. Quantities are often loose – »to taste« or »as usual« stands where today there would be a precise instruction.

The good thing is that the same abbreviations in old recipes recur from house to house. Once you have learned a handful of them, the rest almost reads itself. The most common are:

Pd. = pund
Lod = lod (ca. 15,6 g)
Kvt. or Kvint = kvint (ca. 4 g)
Pgl. = pægl (ca. 0,24 liter)
Spsk. = tablespoon
tsk. = teaspoon

When the quantity is »to taste«

Our great-grandmothers cooked by hand and by taste, not by weight. That is why you often come across imprecise amounts like »a pinch of salt«, »sugar to taste« or »as much flour as the dough can take«. This is not carelessness – it is a cook who assumed the reader had stood at the stove herself. When you copy out the recipe today, it pays to note these phrases word for word and to feel your way the first time.

Money in accounts and probate records

Measures and weights do not only turn up in the kitchen. If you encounter old accounts, household books or a probate record (skifte) after a deceased relative, you will also see the currency of the time. Before 1875 people reckoned in rigsdaler, mark and skilling. In 1875 these were replaced by krone and øre, which we know today.

For the genealogist the amounts are worth their weight in gold: they tell what a farm, a cow or a bridal chest was worth, and how the inheritance was divided among the children. A probate record can in this way paint a whole picture of how prosperous the family was. If you want to become familiar with the spellings in that kind of document, then stop by our article about old Danish orthography.

Oven temperature without a thermometer

Another thing that confuses modern readers is that the old recipes never give degrees. Nor could they – people baked in wood-fired stoves and masonry ovens, where the heat was controlled by experience, not by a dial. Instead of numbers you get instructions like »bake it at an even heat«, »until it is light brown« or »in a well-heated oven«.

If you want to follow the original, you must translate the sensations into modern degrees: »even heat« corresponds roughly to 175–200 °C, while »strong heat« was higher. A good piece of advice is to keep an eye on the colour and the smell, exactly as grandmother did – it is still the most reliable way to know when the cake is done.

When the metric system arrived

The reason all these measures seem foreign today is that Denmark switched to the metric system at the beginning of the 20th century – it became legally required from 1912. Grams, litres and metres replaced pund, pægl and alen. That is why you often find the older family's recipes written in pund and lod, while those of the younger generations are noted in grams. If you see both in the same book, you have almost a little timestamp on each recipe.

More than food

A handwritten cookbook is often also a family chronicle, with notes, dates and greetings between the recipes. An addition like »Grandma's Christmas cake, 1923« or »Made for Anna's wedding« turns the page into a piece of family history and not just a cooking instruction. Read more on our page about deciphering old recipes.

Would you like grandmother's cookbook made readable? MormorsBreve deciphers the Gothic script, so the recipes – and the old measures and abbreviations – come back to the kitchen table. Upload a photo and try the first pages for free.