By VICKIE CLARK
Question: What do you do if your recipe calls for a Number 2, 3 or other can size?
Answer: Some favorite older recipes may call for can sizes such as a Number 2 or a Number 303 can. Here’s a chart to help you determine how these correspond to current can measurements.
• No. 1 (Picnic)
– 1-1/4 cups
– 10-1/2 to 12 ounces
•No. 300
– 1-3/4 cups
– 14 to 16 ounces
• No. 303
– 2 cups
– 16 to 17 ounces
• No. 2
– 2-1/2 cups
– 20 ounces
• No. 2-1/2
– 3-1/2 cups
– 27 to 29 ounces
• No. 3
– 5-3/4 cups
– 51 ounces
• No. 10
– 3 quarts
– 6-1/2 pounds to 7 pounds 5 ounces
Another thought about old recipes….a pinch, a smidge, a dash…sorry, your guess is as good as mine!
Question: What’s the difference between a spider web and a cobweb?
Answer: Cobwebs are those pesky webs that form in the corners of our rooms, along the edges of ceilings and on the sides of our walls. You can get rid of them easily, but without fail, they seem to come back in no time.
The common assumption is that these cobwebs form randomly due to dust particles adhering to each other. The real secret behind cobwebs is actually far more creepy. Cobwebs are made by spiders!
As it turns out, the majority of cobwebs are actually formed from abandoned spider webs!
Spiders build these sticky webs for catching prey. Over time, however, dust accumulates on the web, and the web isn’t sticky enough to catch prey. The spider has to abandon it and build a new one. That’s the reason why you never see a spider on a cobweb, even though the eight-legged arachnid is responsible for its creation!
OK, so now we know that the haphazard cobwebs were once active spider webs, but what about those single strands of dusty material that are seen hanging from the ceiling? Are spiders responsible for those too? In fact, they are. Spiders produce silk strands that they use to jump or swing from place to place. Again, these left-over strands of silk gather dust over time, resulting in those single irritating dust strands that we’ve all walked through and had a miniature tantrum trying to pull them off our face.
Well, there you have it: Spiders are the secret behind the dust streamers decorating our homes.
Vickie Clark is the Director of the Carter County UT Extension Office and also serves as the Family and Consumer Sciences Agent. If you have questions or need any information related to Family and Consumer Science contact her at the UT Extension Carter County, 824 East Elk Ave., Elizabethton, call 542-1818 or email at vclark@utk.edu.