I have a cookbook published in 1887 and for oven temps it might call for a hot oven, moderate oven or a slack oven. Also things like a tea cup of this or a handful of that.
My dad's oldest sister gave it to me and when I asked her about the oven temps she said that if you could put your hand in an oven for only a couple of seconds then it was a 'Hot Oven', I forget the other times for determining a slack or moderate oven.
Here's an example from the book, including the puctuation. It's how to make a Deep Red Coloring;
Take twenty grains of cochineal and fifteen grains of cream of tartar finely powdered; add to them a piece of alum the size of a cherry stone, and boil them with a gill of soft water, in an earthen vessel, slowly, for half an hour. Then strain it through muslin, and keep it tightly corked in a philal. If alcohol is added, it will keep any length of time.