Cooking Measurement Converter

A cup measures space, and a scale measures weight. To get from one to the other you need to know how much one cup of that ingredient weighs. That figure changes a lot from one ingredient to the next.

• Cups is your amount as US cups. A tablespoon is one sixteenth of a cup and a teaspoon one forty-eighth, so the tool turns spoons into cups first.
• Grams per cup is the weight of one level US cup of the ingredient. A cup of all-purpose flour weighs 125 g, a cup of granulated sugar 200 g and a cup of honey 339 g.

The weights come from the household measures in USDA FoodData Central. NIST Handbook 44 defines the US cup as 236.59 mL, so a tablespoon is 14.79 mL and a teaspoon 4.93 mL. Ounces and pounds are converted with the exact NIST values. The Working card shows each step with your own numbers and then converts the answer back as a check.

Spoon to spoon or cup to milliliter needs no weight at all, because both sides are volumes. Grams to ounces is the same: both are weights. The ingredient only matters when one side is a volume and the other is a weight, which is the case most recipes from abroad raise.

Emma's chocolate chip cookies

Emma's recipe is American and her new scale reads grams. The first line is 2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour. That is 2.25 × 125 = 281 g. The 3/4 cup of packed brown sugar is 165 g, and the cup of butter is 227 g. Paste the whole list into Convert a whole recipe and every line comes back at once, with the eggs left as they are.

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A British sponge cake with 250 g of sugar

Raj has a sponge recipe in grams and only US cups. 250 g of granulated sugar divided by 200 g a cup is 1.25 cups. The nearest kitchen measure is $1\tfrac{1}{4}$ cups. If he only has a 1 cup measure and spoons, that is 1 cup plus 4 tablespoons.

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One stick of butter in tablespoons

A US stick of butter weighs 113 g. At 227 g a cup, that is 7.96 tablespoons, which is why the wrapper is marked in 8 tablespoon lines. With butter picked, the note under the answer also counts your amount in sticks.

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The big number is your amount in the unit you picked. When that unit is a volume, the line under it gives the nearest measure you can scoop, such as a third of a cup or a tablespoon and a half. The tiles show the same amount by weight and by volume, and what one tablespoon of the ingredient weighs.

Different charts give slightly different weights, because people fill cups in different ways. USDA lists 125 g for a cup of all-purpose flour. King Arthur Baking's chart uses 120 g, a gap of 5 g a cup. For cookies and pancakes that gap does not matter. For bread and cakes, weigh the flour if your recipe gives grams.

To convert a whole recipe, paste the ingredient list into the recipe box, one ingredient on each line. Write the amount first, then the unit, then the ingredient. The tool reads whole numbers, decimals, mixed numbers such as 1 1/2, and the ½ sign. Each line shows the ingredient it was matched to, so you can see that brown sugar was read as packed brown sugar and not as white sugar. Lines it cannot match, such as eggs, vanilla or bread flour, stay as written with the reason. Nothing is guessed.

The bar chart puts your amount next to the same amount of every other ingredient. It is the quickest way to see why a cup of salt and a cup of cocoa are very different things. Tap a bar to switch to that ingredient. The table at the bottom of the tool lists the grams in one cup, one tablespoon and one teaspoon of each.

Big batches add up quickly. Eight cups of flour for two loaves is 1,000 g, so set Decimal places to 0 if your scale reads whole grams. Use 1 or 2 places for small amounts such as spices.

• Using one cups-to-grams number for everything. A cup of rolled oats weighs 81 g and a cup of honey 339 g. Pick the ingredient before you convert.
• Scooping flour from the bag. The cup packs down and you get more flour than the recipe means. Spoon it in, then level it with the back of a knife.
• Mixing up US and metric cups. Australia, Canada and New Zealand use a 250 mL cup, which holds about 132 g of flour. An Australian tablespoon is 20 mL, about 10.6 g of flour against 7.8 g in a US one.
• Reading fluid ounces as ounces. A fluid ounce is a volume. A fluid ounce of honey weighs 42.4 g, nearly 1.5 times the 28.35 g in a weight ounce.
• Packing brown sugar loosely. Brown sugar is measured pressed down until it holds the shape of the cup when you tip it out. A loose cup can weigh noticeably less, and the cake comes out less moist.
• Measuring liquids in a dry cup. A dry cup filled to the brim spills before it reaches the bowl. Use a clear jug for milk, water and oil, set it on the counter and read it at eye level.
• Swapping kosher salt for table salt by the spoon. A teaspoon of table salt weighs about 6.1 g. Kosher salt has larger flakes, so the same spoon holds much less salt. Swap by weight instead.