Lot (weight)

The Lot (formerly also written Loth) was a unit of measurement of mass, which was mainly used in German-speaking states of the Holy Roman Empire and in Scandinavia.

It was replaced in the German Reich in 1868/69/72, in Austria in 1871/76 and in Switzerland in 1875/77 by the metric unit of measurement, the gramme. But in the early 20th century it was still used as a popular unit of measure in cooking and baking recipes.^[1]

An imprecise but clear rule of thumb is that a lot corresponds to a "spoonful".^[2]

^ Margarete und Emma Doennig: Kochbuch. Selbstverlag der Kochschule der Ostpreußischen Haushaltungsschule, Königsberg, 6. Aufl. 1911, S. 1.
^ Wolfgang Schneider: Das Lot-Gewicht bei Paracelsus. In: Peter Dilg, Guido Jüttner, Wolf-Dieter Müller-Jahncke, Paul Ulrich Unschuld (ed.): Perspektiven der Pharmaziegeschichte. Festschrift Rudolf Schmitz. Graz 1983, pp. 325–330; here: p. 329.

[1] Margarete und Emma Doennig: Kochbuch. Selbstverlag der Kochschule der Ostpreußischen Haushaltungsschule, Königsberg, 6. Aufl. 1911, S. 1.

[2] Wolfgang Schneider: Das Lot-Gewicht bei Paracelsus. In: Peter Dilg, Guido Jüttner, Wolf-Dieter Müller-Jahncke, Paul Ulrich Unschuld (ed.): Perspektiven der Pharmaziegeschichte. Festschrift Rudolf Schmitz. Graz 1983, pp. 325–330; here: p. 329.

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