Cooking Conversions

Cooking Conversions

Cooking Conversions converts between cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, millilitres, ounces and the other measures recipes use.

How to use it

1. Enter an amount and choose the unit it is in.
2. Read the equivalent across the other cooking units.

Why cups are the problem

A US cup is 240 millilitres, a metric cup is 250, and an imperial cup is about 284. A recipe that simply says one cup is ambiguous unless you know where it was written, and the difference compounds when a recipe calls for several.

The deeper issue is that cups measure volume while baking depends on weight. A cup of flour can vary by 20% or more depending on whether it was scooped or spooned and how settled it was, which is why serious baking recipes give grams.

When it helps

• Following a recipe written in units your kitchen does not have.
• Converting a metric recipe for US measuring cups, or the reverse.
• Scaling a measurement that has come out awkward.
• Checking a conversion mid-cook.

Common mistakes

• Assuming all cups are equal. US, metric and imperial cups all differ.
• Converting flour by volume for baking. Weigh it if the recipe matters.
• Confusing fluid ounces with ounces by weight. They are only equivalent for water, and not exactly even then.