120g
All-purpose flour
Per cup, if you spoon it into the cup and level it off. Scoop straight from the bag and you're closer to 140 to 150g, which throws off a recipe more than people realize.
Kitchen Guide
Our Kitchen Measurement Conversion Guide
Teaspoons3 tsp = 1 tbsp
Tablespoons16 tbsp = 1 cup
Cup1 cup = 8 fl oz
Pint2 cups = 1 pint
Quart4 cups = 1 quart
Butter stick1 stick = ½ cup
I don't own a kitchen scale and I'm not buying one just to make a recipe work. These are the conversions I actually use, saved in one place so I stop doing math with butter on my hands.
01 · The essentials
Spoons and cups, the stuff you look up every time
This is the part you screenshot. Every other conversion on this page builds off these.
3 teaspoons1 tablespoon
2 tablespoons1/8 cup (1 fl oz)
4 tablespoons1/4 cup (2 fl oz)
5 tablespoons + 1 tsp1/3 cup
8 tablespoons1/2 cup (4 fl oz)
12 tablespoons3/4 cup (6 fl oz)
16 tablespoons1 cup (8 fl oz)
02 · Butter
Reading a stick of butter like it's not a mystery
US butter wrappers actually have tablespoon lines printed on them. Once you know what a stick equals, you stop guessing.
1 stick
the standard US wrapper
1/2 cup
Also equals: 8 tablespoons, 4 oz by weight, about 113g.
Half a stick
cut at the middle line
1/4 cup
Also equals: 4 tablespoons, 2 oz by weight, about 57g.
1 tablespoon
one wrapper notch
1/16 stick
Also equals: about 14g. Most sticks have 8 notches marked for exactly this reason.
2 sticks
a full box half
1 cup
Also equals: 1/2 lb, about 227g. Most butter boxes hold 4 sticks, which is a full pound.
03 · Cups to grams
Baking staples, by weight
Grams are more accurate than cups for baking because how you scoop changes how much actually ends up in the cup. These are practical averages, not a hard rule, but they'll get you close.
200g
Granulated sugar
Per cup. Sugar doesn't compress the way flour does, so this one's pretty consistent no matter how you scoop it.
220g
Brown sugar, packed
Per cup, packed down like the recipe means it. Loose and unpacked, you're looking at closer to 180g, and that's a real difference in a cookie dough.
04 · Scaling up
How the units stack on top of each other
Useful when you're doubling a recipe or figuring out if that giant stockpot situation is actually a gallon of soup.
Teaspoon3 = 1 tablespoon
→
Tablespoon16 = 1 cup
→
Cup2 = 1 pint
→
Pint2 = 1 quart
→
Quart4 = 1 gallon
→
Gallonthe whole jug
05 · Common mistakes
Where people actually mess this up
None of these are complicated once you see them. They're just easy to not notice until a recipe comes out wrong.
×
Treating fluid ounces and weight ounces as the same thing
A cup of flour is 8 fluid ounces by volume but only about 4.5 ounces by weight. They're not interchangeable, and recipes mix both without warning.
A cup of flour is 8 fluid ounces by volume but only about 4.5 ounces by weight. They're not interchangeable, and recipes mix both without warning.
×
Scooping flour straight from the bag
It packs the flour down and can add an extra 20 to 30g per cup. Spoon it in and level with a knife instead.
It packs the flour down and can add an extra 20 to 30g per cup. Spoon it in and level with a knife instead.
×
Not packing brown sugar when the recipe says to
"Packed" is a real instruction, not filler text. Loose brown sugar can be off by almost a quarter cup of actual sugar.
"Packed" is a real instruction, not filler text. Loose brown sugar can be off by almost a quarter cup of actual sugar.
×
Using a liquid measuring cup for dry ingredients
You can't level off the top of a liquid cup, so dry ingredients measured in one are basically a guess. Use the stackable dry cups instead.
You can't level off the top of a liquid cup, so dry ingredients measured in one are basically a guess. Use the stackable dry cups instead.
×
Assuming a stick of butter is a universal unit
It's a US thing. If a recipe or a friend's grandma's recipe card is from anywhere else, go by grams, not sticks.
It's a US thing. If a recipe or a friend's grandma's recipe card is from anywhere else, go by grams, not sticks.