Simone's Kitchen

Conversions from cups to grams

With the current offer for foreign cookbooks you can buy, it is possible to take every kitchen around the world into your home. And I haven’t even mentioned the recipes you can find on the word wide web!

What can make it a little difficult is the fact that we use grams and ml in Europe while the US and the UK work with cups and spoons. This can cause a bit of an issue when you want to use a recipe. The easiest solution is to run to the nearest store and buy yourself a set of cups and spoons if you live in Europe and a kitchen scale if you live in the US or the UK. I can highly recommend that, as it makes life so much easier! But if you want to start cooking straight away; I have converted the most common uses in cooking here.

In most of the recipes the quantities can be given in either metric or US customary. Some of the older recipes still need to be converted though. For those you can use the below conversions!

For liquids

Cup of SpoonMilliliterTablespoon or teaspoon
½ teaspoon (ts, – t sp)2,5 ml1/2 teaspoon
1 teaspoon5 ml1 theelepels
1 tablespoon (tbs- tb sp-  TS) (3 teaspoons)15 ml1 tablespoon
1/8 cup30 ml 
1/4 cup60 ml (59 ml)*4 tablespoons
1/3 cup80 ml (78 ml)* 
1/2 cup120 ml (118 ml)*8 tablespoons
1 cup240 ml (236 ml)*16 tablespoons
1 1/2 cups350 ml 
2 cups475 ml 
3 cups700 ml 
4 cups950 ml 

* All the above measurements have been round up; exact volumes in milliliter are mentioned between brackets

Calculating cups and spoons into grams is a little tricker, because you have to deal with volume per ingredient (a tablespoon of butter would weigh heavier than the same tablespoon with icing sugar for instance)

Here is a calculation for a few common ingredients. If your ingredient is not listed, then check which one comes closest and use those measurements or do a search online.

Ingrediënt Engelse cups and spoons to grams
  1 cup 3/4 cup 2/3 cup 1/2 cup 1/3 cup 1/4 cup 2 Tbsp
Cornflour 160 g 120 g 100 g 80 g 50 g 40 g 20 g
Flour 120 g 90 g 80 g 60 g 40 g 30 g 15 g
Flour, sieved 110 g 80 g 70 g 55 g 35 g 27 g 13 g
Cornstarch 120 g 90 g 80 g 60 g 40 g 30 g 15 g
Butter 240 g 180 g 160 g 120 g 80 g 60 g 30 g
Margarine 190 g 140 g 125 g 95 g 65 g 48 g 24 g
Sugar 200 g 150 g 130 g 100 g 65 g 50 g 25 g
Icing sugar 100 g 75 g 70 g 50 g 35 g 25 g 13 g
Honey 340 g 255 g 227 g 170 g 113 g 85 g 43 g
Salt 300 g 230 g 200 g 150 g 100 g 75 g 40 g
Rice (dry) 190 g 140 g 125 g 95 g 65 g 48 g 24 g
Pasta (uncooked) 140 g 100 g 90 g 70 g 45 g 35 g 17 g
Vegetables and/or fruit, cut 150 g 110 g 100 g 75 g 50 g 40 g 20 g
Nuts, chopped 150 g 110 g 100 g 75 g 50 g 40 g 20 g
breadcrumbs 60 g 45 g 40 g 30 g 20 g 15 g 8 g
breadcrumbs (from a package) 150 g 110 g 100 g 75 g 50 g 40 g 20 g
Grated cheese 90 g 65 g 60 g 45 g 30 g 22 g 11 g