Gill? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gill_%28unit%29

Jackie, could you please post the comment? Perhaps by analyzing the ratio of ingredients Kitchn readers could figure out GL in context!

Sigh. Post the recipe.

My guess is that GL is short for glass in Jewish.

Sorry, I mean Yiddish.

I don't remember the Hebrew alphabet all that well from my 3 months of auditing a class 10 years ago, but the Google translation of "glass" in English to Yiddish looks like something similar to "g-l-a-t". I'm pretty sure about the "g-l-a," not so sure about the "t"

So, GL would means something similar to "cup".

Glug?

Or maybe "glass"?

Since it's measuring flour and sugar it's either a volume(dry) or weight. Looking at other recipes for Sponge Cake, I'd almost assume those measures would be cups... but I'm still interested in what the word is.

Interesting. it could be a gill, a historic measuring unit equaling to 1/2 cup
http://campus.jewell.edu/academics/curry/library/digital/cwatkins/InstructionsMeasurements.html

or it could be a glass. In Russia "glass" is used instead of "cup" for measurements and they're about the same. I think in your case it's the ratio of the flour, sugar and any fat that's important.

I think the yiddish word for "glass" is actually "glas" (which incidentially is also the german word, btw).

Are all the measurements in this GL unit? If so, then as long as you use the same ratios you'd at least be off to a good start! If you know the ratio of flour to sugar is 1.5 GL to 1.0 GL you could easily make it 1.5 cups to 1.0 cups. Then you just need enough to fill whatever pan you want to use! I guess the only problem would be mixed units (ie spoon measurements mixed in with GL or the quantity of eggs, etc..).

My guess was also gill, which is an old unit of measurement. In today's measurements it equals a half a cup (defined as a quarter of a pint; pint = 2 cups).

Glass is also a possibility as "wineglass" and "teacup" were often used in historic recipes. Theoretically gallon is possible, but unlikely unless other measurements are equally large.

GL is also the metric abbreviation for a gigaliter, which is one billion liters. Obviously that's not what was intended for the recipe, but still fun trivia. Lol.

this albanian recipe has the same abbreviation: http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Flour-Hallva-_Albanian-Name_-Hallve_-RecipeZaar . I can't figure out what it would be though. Not gallon, that would be too much.

My boyfriend's Jewish grandmother gave us a recipe from her Russian Jewish MIL that calls for a "glass" of something... it's a family joke that no one knows the size of the glass she used; we have all just been using a juice glass and the recipe always comes out great...

I think it is "glass"! Here's a halve recipe that's similar with glass written out instead of an abbreviation: http://www.ivu.org/recipes/european/hallve.html . This discussion has some info and it might be 1/4 cup (or even as much as a cup or more) http://www.cookingjunkies.com/rec-food-cooking/measurement-question-26627.html [My Early American Cookbook shows a glass (AKA WineGlass) to be 1/2 gill, 1/4 cup or 4 Tbs. Four glasses to the cup.]

It's definitely "glass," or glezele in Yiddish. I have several recipes from my grandmother with the same wording, and my mother told me that's what it meant.

Hey guys,
It's Jackie. My cousin confirmed for me that the "GL" is a yahrzeit glass. The container that the memorial candles are held in. Thanks for all your help!

Of course a yahrzeit glass. But the size of those glasses has changed over the years.
They used to be bigger.

In Estonian and Russian cookbooks you can usually find the measurements for bakeware given in glasses. The glass we use is the basic tea/juice glass of 200milliliter filled to the of rim. In older recipes it can be up to 250milliliter = metric cup. Therefore my guess is the recipe asks for 1 glass = approximately 1 cup = 237milliliter. Ok the difference of 50ml can make a big difference in the outcome therefore you have to experiment a little or somehow get a measure off of those yahrzeit glasses if there are any available.

I was also going to say yartzeit candle glass. people used to keep them around. I've never seen a recipe written using that as a 'measurement' but it makes sense.

but you'd have to have her 'glass' to make the recipe work.
I'd work on finding a recipe for a similar item and go from there.

this is definably a reference to either a yahrzeit glass or a jelly glass depending on your background. 1940-50's yahrzeit were in the 10oz range, and are much smaller today with better control of the amount of wax and wick. Jelly glasses were 8oz, and you can still buy them today.

I was going to say graduated liter. Chemist for a dad, ha.

I assumed it was a gill as well. I have a Hungarian recipe for Chicken Paprikash that includes a gill. It's about 1/4 pint, or 5oz.

Granulated?

1 gill = 4oz = 1/2 cup.