Converting Between Metric and Imperial Measures

[Amy Eber]

Does anyone have experience converting European baking recipe measurements to American or American to European? Do European bakers actually weigh out dry ingredients for such things as cakes and cookies and how does that convert to cups, teaspoons and tablespoons? I have seen several conversion charts but there is quite a disparity amoung them. Thanks.

[chefpeon]

It's not only European bakers that weigh out ingredients.......American ones do too.

Weighing is ALWAYS the best and most accurate way to measure ingredients......bar none.

But if you want to convert, this conversion calculator is the handiest and most accurate one out there.........

Edited March 24, 2008 by chefpeon (log)

[Amy Eber]

I baked prfessionally in the US and we did weigh everything but I am looking to convert small scale US recipes since I teach and now live in Switzerland but also want to convert back for my teaching jobs in the US. Have you tried thsi calculator with any success?

It's not only European bakers that weigh out ingredients.......American ones do too.

Weighing is ALWAYS the best and most accurate way to measure ingredients......bar none.

But if you want to convert, this conversion calculator is the handiest and most accurate one out there.........

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[chefpeon]

Have you tried thsi calculator with any success?

I use it all the time and vouch for it personally!

[dougal]

Do European bakers actually weigh out dry ingredients for such things as cakes and cookies

Really, yes.

Its easier, and much more accurate. Hence more consistent - particularly between different bakers. Thus weight measurements are a better means of communicating a recipe.

A digital scale can be accurate, precise and cheap - about £8 in the UK - say SF15 or $15?

I'm sure you could pay lots more. You needn't.

Learn to use the 'Tare' function, and you'll love it.

... and how does that convert to cups, teaspoons and tablespoons? 

Don't !!

Its much better to use the measurements as given.

I have seen several conversion charts but there is quite a disparity amoung them. Thanks.

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The reason for the variation is that the quantity of flour that fits into a cup depends on who is filling it, the type of flour, etc.

Its the actual concept of a "cup" of flour that is imprecise, hence the variability.

Technically, the variation arises because the packing density of flour is variable, and unspecified.

Have you noticed that flour is *always* sold by weight, never volume?

Even in the USA.

Ask yourself why that might be...

[Mette]

Does anyone have experience converting European baking recipe measurements to American or American to European?  Do European bakers actually weigh out dry ingredients for such things as cakes and cookies and how does that convert to cups, teaspoons and tablespoons?  I have seen several conversion charts but there is quite a disparity amoung them. Thanks.

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The hassle of converting is most often what prevents me from trying recipes found online or buying cool, American cookbooks.

I weigh out everything, and in Denmark (and presumably the rest of Europe) you can buy a measuring cup with grammes on it for a range of things, like sugar and so on, similar to this one (click on image for larger image). Not hugely accurate, but still better than having to convert everything to volume

I can only recommend weighing :-)

Edited March 24, 2008 by Mette (log)

[Rehovot]

The online GourmetSleuth calculator ChefP mentions is the one I use at work to adapt cookbooks for the US/UK market. It's good and precise.

[heidih]

I spent a summer month as a girl converting the Austrian recipes to volume. All we had back then was the scale with the sliding weights. Mom's American fiends thought she was selfish when she did  not give them her recipes. I know it was inaccurate but she gave them the converted ones. Pre computer age.

[Anna N]

Staff note: this post has been moved from Small-batch baking: pies, cakes, cookies, bread and bread rolls, etc.

 

I am nitpicking! 

 

King Arthur flour is no more of a standard for the weight of a cup of flour than I. 

 

The LA Times  

 

Nobody has been able to determine what constitutes a cup of flour. 
 

 f

 

[Tropicalsenior]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

Nobody has been able to determine what constitutes a cup of flour. 

I have to admit that I am still using cups and tablespoons. I have a darn good kitchen scale and I use it all the time but just not for baking. I'd like to say it's because I'm too old to learn but the truth is I'm just too lazy to learn. It's easier to use the method that I have used all my life. Most of my baking isn't precise enough that it makes much of a difference.

As for the weight of flour and what constitutes a cup, I have periodically weighed out the flour that I can get here and it weighs differently from bag to bag and also has quite a difference from the rainy season to the dry season. So trying to convert recipes from metric to cups just never works unless I weigh the flour each time before I start and then I might as well use a scale for the whole recipe.

 

[heidih]

54 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I have to admit that I am still using cups and tablespoons. I have a darn good kitchen scale and I use it all the time but just not for baking. I'd like to say it's because I'm too old to learn but the truth is I'm just too lazy to learn. It's easier to use the method that I have used all my life. Most of my baking isn't precise enough that it makes much of a difference.

As for the weight of flour and what constitutes a cup, I have periodically weighed out the flour that I can get here and it weighs differently from bag to bag and also has quite a difference from the rainy season to the dry season. So trying to convert recipes from metric to cups just never works unless I weigh the flour each time before I start and then I might as well use a scale for the whole recipe.

 

I understand the science. As a young teen I took on the task of converting our pastry recipes from metric weights  to cups and spoons. People would ask for mom's recipes and think she was being not nice with just metric. Going forward I started to use the C & T measures. Back then we did not know the different flours etc. Nothing elaborate but classic cakes and semi puff oastry items and pretty delicious stuff. Maybe the ladies and their "apprentices" like me just got a feel for how things should be. I do wish I could find my old scale though. It was a thing of beauty with the sliding weights. 

Edited January 19, 2023 by heidih (log)

[RWood]

What I’ve always done is if I have a recipe that I want to try and it’s in cups, I measure by the recipe. But, I weigh it in grams as I go. Rewrite the recipe, and if it’s a keeper, it’s ready to go.

 When I was baking a lot of wedding cakes and working on my recipes, it was the easiest way. And they’ve all worked perfectly well using this method. 
I’m trying to get everything changed over to weight, because I hate measuring cups! So much less to wash and much faster. 

[paulraphael]

I convert almost every recipe to grams. I found a downloadable table online years ago, and have added to it and changed some of the values based on my own measurements. It annoys me to have to do this. I'd rather punish publishers and never buy a book that's so retrograde as to only have cup and teaspoon measures. But alas, in some cases there's no better book.

 

I don't like volume measurements at all, even in metric. You've got a scale; why not just weigh your liquids? Measuring cups are all wildly inaccurate anyway. 

 

The exception to all this is cocktails. Even the most science-minded mixologists have found that the old-time volume measures work best for booze. 

 

I also sometimes use measuring spoons for ingredients like leavening, if I'm in a hurry and accuracy isn't important (pancakes, etc.). Breaking out the 0.01g scale for this stuff can be a bit time consuming.

[blue_dolphin]

10 hours ago, paulraphael said:

I don't like volume measurements at all, even in metric. You've got a scale; why not just weigh your liquids? Measuring cups are all wildly inaccurate anyway. 

 

I also convert recipes to metric and totally agree with weighing as many ingredients as possible.  Especially stuff like butter, oil, honey, peanut butter, mayonnaise, cream cheese, etc.

I keep a handy little book on my counter, The Baker's Appendix (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), which includes tables for all the usual suspects as well as things like marzipan, applesauce, jam and jellies, pumpkin purée, crushed pineapple plus oven temps, baking pan volumes , oven temps, egg sizes, etc. 

When I purchase a book by a UK author, I try to order from a UK bookseller to avoid the risk of badly converted volume measurements that have popped up in US editions. 

 

For some reason, I still think of pasta servings in oz but it's easy to push that button on the scale and switch back and forth for that.

[RWood]

On 1/20/2023 at 10:50 AM, blue_dolphin said:

I also convert recipes to metric and totally agree with weighing as many ingredients as possible.  Especially stuff like butter, oil, honey, peanut butter, mayonnaise, cream cheese, etc.

Exactly! I can't stand trying to measure something gooey in a cup 😤

[TdeV]

My scale does ounces to only one decimal place, so I always convert to grams. I built a spreadsheet which converts cups of various flours from King Arthur, but that, of course, assumes that 1 cup = 120 grams. I paste this spreadsheet into the front of most American cookbooks. LOL.

[AlaMoi]

((LOooooooooooooong story)) but I deal with metric a lot, so I wrote my own, thence adapted to cooking stuff from strictly engineering stuff....

[TdeV]

Brilliant, @AlaMoi !

[mmlstarr]

Hi all!

 

I've been baking some recipes lately that call for liquids in ml. 175 ml of milk; 170 ml of oil, etc. I mean, 175 ml is just about 3/4 cup, so that's easy enough, but my pyrex liquid measure doesn't have a line for every possible number of ml, so... I thought of converting to grams and weighing it out. 

 

I know water is 1:1 ml to grams. Everything else I use an online conversion tool that I'm hoping is right, lol.

 

Thoughts?

[AlaMoi]

the obvious factor is the density of the liquid.  which only the beginning of the problem . . . because one cannot assume one 'universal' density for each commodity - for example oils.... olive, EVOO, corn, the unspecified "vegetable oil", etc etc etc, , ,

chicken/beef/seafood/vegetable/bone broths&/or stock, milk, maple syrup - all vary - item to item and brand to brand . . .

 

now, the good news is.... in smallish quantities . . . . it's "close enough"

use a measuring cup (the larger the better = less error effects) to weigh known volume and reduce it to a standard amount (cup, fl ounce, etc)

some products list "serving size" in both volume and grams.  small caution:  there's usually some 'rounding'

 

making bread/pancakes/waffles/rolls/biscuits/etc . . . I start with the convert grams, note how it works, and simply transition the whole recipe to grams - solids and liquids.

 

most on-line conversion sites are accurate - but there are site that do not know the difference between fluid ounces and ounces by weight.

[Okanagancook]

You can always add more liquid using table spoon and teaspoons…15 ml per tablespoon.  5 lm per teaspoon.

[mmlstarr]

3 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

You can always add more liquid using table spoon and teaspoons…15 ml per tablespoon.  5 lm per teaspoon.

ah, good to know. Thanks!

[Okanagancook]

We have one of these…very handy

https://www.amazon.ca/NCnnwovf-Ounce-Measuring-Liquid-Espresso/dp/B09ZV4CSBJ/ref=sr_1_145_sspa?crid=IG4LZU8FJFMG&keywords=measuring%2Bcups&qid=1697412620&sprefix=Measur%2Caps%2C484&sr=8-145-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGZfbmV4dA&th=1

[liuzhou]

I'd buy a better measuring jug. Weighing would work, but not exactly convenient. It has intermediate steps. Around $5 USD. Anything between the marks can easily be guesstimated by eye and won't make much difference if slightly out.

 

Image from ad where I bought it

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2023 by liuzhou (log)

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, mmlstarr said:

Hi all!

 

I've been baking some recipes lately that call for liquids in ml. 175 ml of milk; 170 ml of oil, etc. I mean, 175 ml is just about 3/4 cup, so that's easy enough, but my pyrex liquid measure doesn't have a line for every possible number of ml, so... I thought of converting to grams and weighing it out. 

 

I know water is 1:1 ml to grams. Everything else I use an online conversion tool that I'm hoping is right, lol.

 

Thoughts?

 

I know you've gotten some helpful advice already, but if you're interested in maybe making an upgrade to your kitchen equipment I'd recommend something like this Oxo set of graduated angled measuring cups (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). i have the smallest, which comes to 1/4 cup and measures in tablespoons and ounces on 1 side, and ml on the other side. I also have this conical 2-cup measuring beaker (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) which measures in ml, tsp, T, oz and cups. It gets at least as much use as the angled measuring cup; maybe more.