Sir, The idea that cookery books might require one to weigh eggs is not as outlandish as Graham Young (letter, June 29) seems to think. In the days before graded eggs, the classic recipe for a Victoria sponge cake instructed the cook to weigh the eggs before breaking, and use equal weights of flour, sugar and butter.
A cookery book published by Durham Women’s Institute around 1970 has a recipe for a plain sponge in which the ingredients are three eggs, the weight of three eggs in sugar, and the weight of two eggs in plain flour.
Julia Forsyth
Durham