The cups in use
Cup | Volume | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|
US customary cup | 236.6 ml | Recipes from the United States |
US label cup | 240 ml | Nutrition labels in the United States |
Metric cup | 250 ml | Australia, New Zealand, Canada |
Imperial cup | 284 ml | British recipes from before metric measures, now rare |
What the difference does to a recipe
A metric cup holds about 6 percent more than a US cup. For a cup of water in a stew that is nothing. For flour in a cake it is the difference between 120 g and 127 g per cup, and over three cups it adds up to a couple of extra tablespoons.
Ingredient | 1 US cup | 1 metric cup |
|---|---|---|
All-purpose flour | 120 g | 127 g |
Granulated sugar | 198 g | 209 g |
Brown sugar, packed | 213 g | 225 g |
Butter | 227 g | 240 g |
Milk | 244 g | 258 g |
Rolled oats | 89 g | 94 g |
If every ingredient in a recipe is measured with the same cup, the proportions stay right whichever cup you own. Trouble comes when cups meet other units: a metric cup of flour with a US stick of butter, or cups with grams.
Spoons differ too
Spoon | United States | Metric | Australia |
|---|---|---|---|
Teaspoon | 4.9 ml | 5 ml | 5 ml |
Tablespoon | 14.8 ml | 15 ml | 20 ml |
The Australian tablespoon is the one to watch: it is four teaspoons, a third more than everyone else’s three.
How to tell which cup a recipe means
Look at where the author or the website is from. American recipes mean the US cup. Australian and New Zealand recipes mean the metric cup and the 20 ml tablespoon.
If the recipe also gives grams, use the grams.
British recipes are usually in grams and milliliters. An old one that speaks of pints means the imperial pint of 568 ml, larger than the US pint of 473 ml.
Converting between them
To turn US cups into metric cups, multiply by 0.95. To go the other way, multiply by 1.06. For weights, the cups to grams converter has both cups in its unit list: choose cups for a US recipe and metric cups for an Australian one. To convert a whole recipe at once, paste it into the recipe converter.
Sources and method
The US customary cup is half a US pint, 236.588 ml. The 240 ml cup is the one US food labeling rules define for nutrition labels. The metric cup is 250 ml by definition, and the imperial cup is half an imperial pint, 284 ml. Ingredient weights come from King Arthur Baking’s ingredient weight chart and USDA FoodData Central, scaled from the US cup to the metric cup.
