A Pinch of This and A Dash of That

I recently made a few Raspberry Pies following my grandmother's recipe that is included in a cookbook featuring her recipes. It was put together by her oldest daughter. One of six daughters. I love using her recipes. They are quite simple. Basic. Born out of an era of raising a family on a farm where meals were homemade, and work and chores were nonstop and produce came from the garden, some of that produce eventually canned or stored in a root cellar.

In a few of my grandmother's recipes, her instructions include words such as a pinch, a dash, a sprinkle or a hint as ways of measurement of certain ingredients. In the Raspberry Pie recipe, her instruction was to add a pinch of salt. Before, when coming upon that particular instruction, I would put a little bit of salt in a bowl or on a plate and take a pinch of it. Then add the pinch to the other ingredients. But this time I was curious. For whatever the reason, I asked Mr. Google what the instruction for a Pinch of an ingredient in a recipe equals in measuring it out.

Was I surprised by the amount of information I received, on not only a Pinch, but on a Dash, Sprinkle, Hint, even a Smidgen. Even a Drop! Did you know a Dash is 1/8th of a teaspoon, liquid only, a Pinch is between 1/4 teaspoon and 1/16th of a teaspoon or that a Smidgen is 1/32 of a teaspoon and a Hint is 1/28th of a teaspoon?  The Drop, liquid only, is 1/64th of a teaspoon. And if you want to be exact, you can purchase a measuring cup for a Pinch, a Dash, a Sprinkle, a Hint, Smidgen, even a Drop.

A Pinch is the one that made the most sense to me. Supposedly what fits between your thumb and forefinger is considered a Pinch! I get that. I don't need to measure a Pinch! Nor will I measure any of the others.

I'm sure my grandmother never measured a Pinch or a Dash, Hint or Sprinkle, Drop or Smidgen. I'm sure she never gave it a thought. She was too busy working about her farmhouse in her house dress. Too busy going out to the gardens, the barn and fields, tending to children. Despite all that she had to do, I'm certain whatever she cooked tasted delicious. I can attest to that!

It did not matter that my grandmother was void of something called a computer with a Mr. Google available twenty-four hours a day. She didn't need such a thing. If she ever got into a 'pinch', she'd get Creative. That's something Mr. Google and his computer will never figure out.