In most Italian households in the United States, recipes have been verbally handed down from prior generations. Certainly, in my house, most of the the Italian recipes I was taught to make come from my mother’s mother’s mother’s mother. Say that 10 times fast. So, here’s the thing, I love to cook for my family and friends and throw parties around food. My guests frequently ask for my recipes, but most of these things have not been written down. I just know how to do it. All of my siblings cook, as well; a wonderful gift given to us by both of our parents who are also both master cooks.
So, recently, I have decided to write down these recipes with the help of my mother and write a cookbook. A little snafu arose, when we realized “a dash of this” and a “little of that” would not translate to the masses for them to effectively make the recipes that come so easily to us. Therefore, we had to come up with measurements! Yes, those old school conversions that you learned in school and forgot. I turned to a great resource from CulinarySchools.org. They have a handy cooking conversion chart for measurement, temperature and weight. For instance, did you know that 1/4 cup is equal to 4 tablespoons? I didn’t remember that either, but now I have printed these charts and posted them in the kitchen and play little memorization games with them to challenge myself to remember. Speaking of games, they actually have a series of “kids” games on their site to learn about food and cooking. I played them and some of them are actually challenging for adults.
Beyond the conversion charts listed on the site, they also have a drop down menu that you can input the initial amount that you know you are working with and convert it to another amount. For instance, I have a lot of European friends. You can enter 8 UK gallons into the dropdown menu and convert it to litres. It does all the work for you. A pretty great resource for sure. I have bookmarked it in my web browser to refer to as well, when I am making new recipes.
Overall, CulinarySchools.org has a myriad of info regarding all things cooking and has been a great reference for me, so I thought I would suggest it to you all.
I have highlighted and hyperlinked the measurement conversion links and kid’s game links above but here they are directly:
https://www.culinaryschools.org/career-info/conversion/
https://www.culinaryschools.org/kids-games/
Happy Cooking to You!
"I’ve had the most wonderful mentors and I’m super grateful that I had the right people championing me along the way." - Tamela D'Amico-