Kitchen know-how · 2 minute read
Old wineglass to ml and US fluid ounces: Beeton and Kitchiner
Beeton's 1906 liquid wineglass is about 71 ml or 2.4 US fluid ounces. Compare it with Kitchiner's separately defined measure.
By TuneMyRecipe. Published .
Beeton’s 1906 liquid table makes a wineglassful of water or milk one-eighth Imperial pint, about 71 ml or 2.4 US fluid ounces. Kitchiner’s 1822 fourth edition defines a wineglass through two ounces of his own liquid measure. Those statements shouldn’t be merged into one universal wineglass size.
A wineglass in milliliters and US fluid ounces
For the 1906 Beeton table, one wineglass is one-eighth Imperial pint; two and four represent one-quarter and one-half pint. The ounce column uses modern US fluid ounces:
| Source quantity | Metric | US fluid ounces |
|---|---|---|
| 1 wineglassful | About 71 ml | About 2.4 US fl oz |
| 2 wineglassfuls | About 142 ml | About 4.8 US fl oz |
| 4 wineglassfuls | About 284 ml | About 9.6 US fl oz |
These are water-or-milk comparisons from p. 127. They don’t establish a serving size for a modern glass or a capacity for every historical sherry or claret glass.
What Kitchiner means by two ounces
In The Cook’s Oracle, fourth edition, London, 1822, p. 31, Kitchiner specifies a graduated wine pint divided into sixteen ounces. His wineglass is two liquid ounces within that scheme: one-eighth of the source pint.
That relative amount is supported. No modern milliliter or US fluid-ounce value is selected for Kitchiner’s glass. Replacing his two liquid ounces with two modern Imperial fluid ounces would introduce a definition the passage hasn’t established.
This is also why a recipe’s ounce of butter and its wineglass can’t be converted through the same shortcut. One may be a weight; the other is a capacity described through a particular liquid system.
Adapting a recipe that just says glass
Look for the author’s measuring notes and the exact glass name. A present-day wineglass filled to a guessed line won’t recover an unidentified old measure. If you choose a working volume, record that choice as part of the adaptation.
The old recipe measurements article brings the volume, weight and spoon questions together. Preserve the source’s fraction when the absolute capacity remains unresolved. The site’s tools don’t automatically interpret an old wineglass or identify its volume.
Sources
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Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, London, new revised edition, 1906, pp. 126–127. Scan.
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The Cook’s Oracle, London, fourth edition, 1822, p. 31. Scan.
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NIST, SI conversion factors, modern nominal unit factors used for the rounded comparisons.