Measuring in “Parts”
Tina Sams
The Essential Herbal, Sept/Oct '10
Often people have a difficult time converting recipes from
“parts” into a more familiar standard of measurement. Once it is understood, it is a very freeing
way of communicating a recipe. I
generally assume that parts refers to measurement by volume, but it can also
refer to weight in some cases.
Let’s take a recipe for an herbal tea blend:
2 parts chamomile
1 part raspberry leaf
½ part peppermint
If we exchange the word part(s) with cup(s), the recipe
would translate to:
2 cups chamomile
1 cup raspberry leaf
½ cup peppermint
But perhaps we would like to only make a small amount in
order to see if we like it. In that
case, we could exchange part(s) for teaspoon(s), translating to:
2 t chamomile
1 t raspberry leaf
½ t peppermint
In this way, a part can be any type of container which is
then used as a unit of measurement. Shot
glass, Dixie cup, quart deli container,
gallon, 5 gal bucket, bushel, barrel, truckload
– anything at all!
This works for dried herbs, liquids, and just about anything
that one would like to blend.
In the recipe given above, exchanging “part” for “pound” (or
other weight unit) is not appropriate because a pound of peppermint is smaller
in volume than the chamomile or raspberry leaf.
When we create a formula that we intent to use parts by weight, we note
that specifically when writing the recipe down.
1 comment:
This is great for people just starting out! Wish someone put this out for me when I was just starting out! Thanks for sharing!
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