I got a 1947 recipe for "Spice Cookies" (that turned out to be gingersnaps) from a screenshot on reddit. It called for a half cup of spry, which confounded me until I searched around and found that Spry was once a popular brand of shortening. If anyone in my family had written that recipe down, it would have said Crisco. But that's not the only danger in using vintage recipes. An inordinate number of grandmas jotted down recipes for people who know how to cook, and don't bother mentioning you need to refrigerate cookie dough because everyone knows that!
If you're using a recipe from a hundred years ago, you may see confusing fractions without a slash. If you see "1-2 cup of water," you should know that is very different from "1-2 cups of water." You might also see the terms gill, saleratus, slow oven, or butter the size of an egg. These are translated for you, along with other tips on how to read obsolete directions in heirloom recipes at Newpapers.com. Now imagine a hundred years from now that someone found a recipe you jotted down, and they cannot figure out why you wrote "click here." -via Strange Company
