Introduction

You're following a recipe from an American food blog. It calls for "2 cups of all-purpose flour." You're in Europe with a kitchen scale. How many grams is that?

Or you're baking bread from a British recipe that uses grams, but your American measuring cups are all you have. The internet gives you different answers depending on the ingredient, because a cup of flour doesn't weigh the same as a cup of sugar.

This guide covers the conversions you actually need, explains why they vary by ingredient, and gives you quick-reference tables to bookmark.

Why Volume and Weight Don't Match

The fundamental problem: cups measure volume, grams measure weight. A cup is always 240 ml, but how much that weighs depends on the density of the ingredient.

1 cup of water = 240 g (water is the baseline)
1 cup of all-purpose flour = ~120 g (flour is light and airy)
1 cup of granulated sugar = ~200 g (denser than flour)
1 cup of butter = ~227 g (very dense)
1 cup of honey = ~340 g (heavy liquid)

This is why "1 cup = X grams" without specifying the ingredient is meaningless. A cooking unit converter handles these ingredient-specific conversions automatically.

Common Dry Ingredient Conversions

Ingredient	1 Cup	¾ Cup	½ Cup	¼ Cup
All-purpose flour	120 g	90 g	60 g	30 g
Bread flour	127 g	95 g	64 g	32 g
Whole wheat flour	128 g	96 g	64 g	32 g
Granulated sugar	200 g	150 g	100 g	50 g
Brown sugar (packed)	220 g	165 g	110 g	55 g
Powdered sugar	120 g	90 g	60 g	30 g
Cocoa powder	85 g	64 g	43 g	21 g
Rolled oats	90 g	68 g	45 g	23 g
Rice (uncooked)	185 g	139 g	93 g	46 g
Salt (table)	288 g	216 g	144 g	72 g

Why Flour Varies So Much

How you scoop flour matters enormously. Scooping directly from the bag compresses the flour and can give you up to 150g per cup. The "spoon and level" method (spooning flour into the cup, then leveling with a knife) gives roughly 120g. Professional bakers always use weight because volume measurements are inherently imprecise for flour.

Common Liquid Conversions

Measurement	Milliliters	Fluid Ounces
1 cup	240 ml	8 fl oz
¾ cup	180 ml	6 fl oz
½ cup	120 ml	4 fl oz
⅓ cup	80 ml	2.7 fl oz
¼ cup	60 ml	2 fl oz
1 tablespoon	15 ml	0.5 fl oz
1 teaspoon	5 ml	0.17 fl oz

Important: US cups (240 ml) differ from UK/Imperial cups (284 ml) and metric cups (250 ml). Most online recipes use US cups. If a British recipe says "1 cup," it means 284 ml.

Spoon Measurements

Measurement	Teaspoons	Tablespoons	Milliliters
1 tablespoon	3 tsp	1 tbsp	15 ml
1 teaspoon	1 tsp	⅓ tbsp	5 ml
½ teaspoon	—	—	2.5 ml
¼ teaspoon	—	—	1.25 ml
1 cup	48 tsp	16 tbsp	240 ml

Quick mental math: 3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon. 16 tablespoons = 1 cup.

Oven Temperature Conversions

Recipes from different countries use different temperature scales:

Description	Fahrenheit	Celsius	Gas Mark
Very low	250°F	120°C	½
Low	300°F	150°C	2
Moderate	350°F	175°C	4
Moderately hot	375°F	190°C	5
Hot	400°F	200°C	6
Very hot	425°F	220°C	7
Extremely hot	475°F	245°C	9

The quick approximation for Fahrenheit to Celsius: subtract 32, multiply by 5/9. Or use the oven temperature converter for instant exact conversions.

Weight Conversions

Grams	Ounces	Pounds
28 g	1 oz	—
100 g	3.5 oz	—
227 g	8 oz	0.5 lb
454 g	16 oz	1 lb
1000 g	35.3 oz	2.2 lb

The exact conversion: 1 ounce = 28.3495 grams. For cooking, rounding to 28g is close enough.

Scaling Recipes

When you double a recipe, most ingredients scale linearly — double the flour, double the sugar, double the butter. But some things don't scale linearly:

Salt and spices: Start at 1.5× when doubling, then taste and adjust
Leavening agents (baking powder, yeast): Scale at roughly 0.8× per doubling (too much makes things taste metallic or collapse)
Cooking time: Doesn't double. A larger batch cooks at the same temperature but may need 10-30% more time
Liquid for cooking pasta/grains: Scale by ~1.5× rather than 2×

For straightforward proportional scaling, the recipe scaler handles the math. For baking, always adjust leavening manually.

Butter Conversions

Butter is uniquely confusing because it's measured in cups, grams, ounces, tablespoons, AND sticks:

US Sticks	Cups	Grams	Ounces	Tablespoons
1 stick	½ cup	113 g	4 oz	8 tbsp
½ stick	¼ cup	57 g	2 oz	4 tbsp
2 sticks	1 cup	227 g	8 oz	16 tbsp

US butter sticks have tablespoon markings on the wrapper, which is genuinely one of America's best culinary innovations.

Egg Sizes

When a recipe says "2 eggs," it means large eggs (US sizing). If you only have medium or extra-large eggs:

Size	Approximate Weight (without shell)
Medium	44 g
Large	50 g
Extra Large	56 g
Jumbo	63 g

For baking, the difference matters. 3 medium eggs ≈ 132g vs 3 large eggs ≈ 150g — that's 12% less liquid and fat, which can noticeably change the texture.

Conclusion

The core problem with cooking measurements is that the world uses two systems (metric and imperial), three cup sizes (US, UK, metric), and recipes mix volume and weight inconsistently. A kitchen scale is the single best investment for consistent results.

When you don't have one handy, the cooking unit converter handles ingredient-specific conversions, the recipe scaler adjusts portions, and the oven temperature converter sorts out °F/°C/Gas Mark confusion. Bookmark them for the next time you're mid-recipe with flour-covered hands.

Tag: cooking

Cooking Measurement Conversions — Cups, Grams, Ounces and Everything Between