Cooking the *real stuff* from original recipes sounds easy, but it's not...even if you're lucky enough to have access to ancient roasting pits, colonial beehive ovens, conestoga kitchens and fireless cookers. What did the colonial housewife mean by when she wrote in her recipe "butter the size of an egg?" Exactly how hot was a "hot oven?" How did the Virgina housewife know when her hams were finished smoking? Was the Cincinnati housewife who cooked in the 1920s more likely to use single or double acting baking powder? This is complicated stuff. Historic hen's eggs were generally smaller than the ones we have today; hot ovens & smoked hams were a matter of experience and the preference/propensity for using *new-fangled* food items were (as they are today) a matter of money, tradition, and personal taste.

Truth is, most old recipes were not much more than shopping lists with cursory prep notes. Detailed instructions were not considered necessary because it was understood that whoever cooked the food already knew the basics. Measurements are time/country/food specific. Did you know some culinary historians say we Americans measure with objects (as opposed to weight) because of our pioneer heritage? Conestoga wagons had plenty of cups & spoons but very few reliable scales. Scientific cven temperatures and exact measurements had no place in pre-industrial kitchens...which explains why food was commonly *served forth* when it was *done.* Standard measurements and detailed cooking instructions were a by-product of the Industrial Revolution and are commonly attributed to Fannie M. Farmer, principal of the Boston Cooking School.

There is no single place to obtain all of the historic conversions necessary to interpret & recreate [redact] original historic recipes in your kitchen. This does not mean your task is impossible. Quite the contrary.

Many food historians agree on these points: