I have a book of old wine recipes and many of the water measurments is for a "take" of water. Another term that it has is for a "smite" of something (I'm thinking that isn't much...but how much or little?) Thanks for the help! Peggy Adkins

-- Peggy Adkins (adkinsonthefarm@hotmail.com), May 05, 2001

Answers

Response to Odd Measurments, anyone know how much?

Peggy, I do recall seeing termonology as this in a very old (1800s) Irish whiskey distillers handbook. Perhaps if you could post the recipe, we might be able to overlay it into a more recent format recipe for you. Many "new" wine recipes are old ones with new terms. An example- one of my antique recipes calls for the wine to be aged in a hogshead while the modern recipe calls for aging in a 65 gal white oak barrel.

-- Jay Blair in N. Al (jayblair678@yahoo.com), May 05, 2001.

Response to Odd Measurments, anyone know how much?

Peggy,

if this gentleman wine maker doesn't know there is No answer!

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/index.asp

-- westbrook (westbrook@qnet.com), May 05, 2001.

It appears hogs come in various sizes, and so do 'hogs heads'. I can find references to various sizes which themselves are defined in 'gallons' which also vary of course! The best I can venture is that a 'hogshead' is a moderately big wooden barrel!

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), May 06, 2001.

I emailed this site which defines just about every measurement ever heard of:

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/index.html

But this was his reply:

Willy,

As you suspected, "smite" is an older word meaning an indefinite small amount, like "pinch" in more modern recipes. I couldn't find any evidence that it ever had a definite equivalent. The phrase "take of water" is more of a problem. "Take" can be used to mean "an amount taken", but I haven't been able to find any reference to this as a unit of measurement. The Oxford English Dictionary has something like 72 definitions for "take", but none as a unit. I also checked slang dictionaries, with no success. Can you provide any more information as to how the phrase was used in your reference?

-- Willy Allen (willyallen2@yahoo.com), May 08, 2001.

Feel free to correct me but I was raised with many of these old terms again Doin't take this to the bank. A take of water means to cover the fruit mash or what ever you have in the coaintner well with water. Hope this helps! COALTRAIN

-- coaltrain (prairierose91@hotmail.com), May 08, 2001.