HELP!! cups and oz ....

Hi all,

I love this site as its bringing us all together from all over the place .... i'm in the UK. Lots of you are in the states. And i have a problem .....

the states folks often use 'cups' as their measurement .... but does anyone know what this is in oz's, or grams???  i want to follow recipes from our american friends and as i drink tea from bucket size cups - don't think this will work!!!

anyone know??

1 Cup= 8 ounces

1 oz.= 28.35 grams

great, thank you X

Original Post by monkfish998:

great, thank you X

 You're MOST WELCOME.  I had the same difficulty trying to follow recipes that I got when I was in England and Scotland.  The litres threw me for a LOOP!

There is no sensible answer. I have the same problem (working in grams).

The reason that there is no sensible answer is that the two are not comparable - "cups" measure volume while g/oz measure weight.

1 cup broccoli = 71g

1 cup rice = about 180g

1 cup water = 236g

thanks. hadn't thought about that, makes sense!! might need to import an american measuring cup then.

thanks folks

Just find one of your cups that holds 0.25litre water (or better still, a little less, because the 'correct' size is 236g = 0.236l = 236ml).

0.25l = 250ml = 250g 

Don't forget, this site has a converter on it.   It is under the Foods menu and is called Unit Converter.

http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/units.php

A U.S. "cup" measurement is a measure of volume equal to 8 fluid ounces.  "Ounces" and "fluid ounces" are actually two different measurements with the same name - one measures volume and one measues weight (mass).  Confusing, I know.  One fluid ounce is not necessarily equivalent to one ounce by weight, because different foods/liquids have different densities (as foiegras noted above).

You can estimate a cup as 8 fluid ounces if you're measuring water or something of similar density, or for general cooking.  But you absolutely cannot use this approximation for baking, where precise measurements will mean the difference between a bread or cake that rises or comes out hard as a rock.  Using a conversion calculator won't help because they only convert like units - volume (say, ml) to volume (fluid ounces) or mass (g) to mass (ounces).  The only real way to make the conversion is to know the density of a particular food or liquid and do the math, which is a huge pain if your recipe has more than a few ingredients.

I'd recommend getting a meauring cup set.  I'm happy to send you one (you can get a set of 4 for a few dollars at any grocery store) or you can get some nice ones on Amazon.  I have the Amco stainless steel ones - they'll last for the next 5 generations!

P.S. I was surprised to see that you are from the U.K.  I have heard my continental European friends complain about this many times, but I thought we inherited the "cups" system from the Brits!

Thankyou I am also from the UK and have been doing a lot of guess work up until now. I've been imagining how many baby tomatoes would fit into a small tea cup 150ml. No wonder I thought the portions were measely lol. I have now found a cup, well a mug which holds 250ml and can now measure slightly more accurately.

Thanks again xx