I saw this in Ruchoma Shain ?”?’s book, All for the Boss:
She was describing life in Mir, Europe in letters to her parents. She was explaining her language barrier problems:
…I asked her for simple instructions in cooking. “How muuch salt?” I asked. Her terse answer was, “A chuch.” For my question on the amount of sugar, “A hoifen” and for liquid, “A shpritz.”
I finally got up enough courage to ask … chuch – a pinch of salt; hoifen – a handful of sugar; shpritz – a few drops of any liquid. I am still experimenting with these measurements, but my food does not always taste the way it should…
Chapter 16 – Letter 3 (Page 231 in the newly expanded edition)
Well, I assume they had some sort of measuring utensils, but they didn’t always use them. And people today still use the above measurements.
SiDi™