Cooking Conversion Calculator
Volume, weight, oven temperature, and ingredient-specific (cups → grams) conversions for cooks and bakers.
The case for kitchen scales
Most experienced bakers measure by weight, not volume. The reason: a “cup of flour” can range from 110 grams (carefully spooned and leveled) to 160+ grams (firmly scooped). That's a 45% range — enough to turn a recipe from tender to leaden. Weighing eliminates the ambiguity.
A digital kitchen scale costs $15–25 and lasts a decade. It speeds up baking (zero out the bowl, add ingredient, zero, add next), uses fewer dishes, and improves consistency. Once you've baked with weight, you won't go back.
Common ingredient densities (per US cup)
- All-purpose flour: 125g (King Arthur standard)
- Bread flour: 130g (slightly higher protein, denser packing)
- Cake flour: 115g (lower protein, lighter)
- Whole wheat flour: 130g
- Granulated sugar: 200g
- Brown sugar (packed): 220g
- Powdered sugar: 120g
- Butter: 227g (= 1/2 lb / 2 sticks in the US)
- Oil: 218g
- Milk / heavy cream: 240g / 232g
- Honey: 340g (denser than water)
- Cocoa powder: 85g (very light)
These vary by brand and grind. The calculator uses widely-cited averages.
The salt problem
Different salt brands have different volumes for the same weight. The two most common kosher salts in US cooking are not interchangeable by volume:
- Diamond Crystal: 1 cup ≈ 142g. Light, hollow flakes.
- Morton: 1 cup ≈ 200g. Denser flakes.
- Table salt (fine): 1 cup ≈ 273g. Tightly packed.
A recipe calling for “1 tablespoon kosher salt” can mean two dramatically different amounts. NYT Cooking and many modern food sites specify which brand they used. When converting, use weight if available, or taste cautiously.
US vs Imperial vs metric — why mismatched recipes fail
Three different “cup” standards in common use:
- US cup: 236.588 mL. The default for US recipes.
- Imperial (UK) cup: 284.131 mL. ~20% larger than US.
- Metric cup: 250 mL. Used in Australia, NZ, most of Europe when cups are used at all (most metric recipes use grams instead).
UK fluid ounce is also slightly larger than US (28.4 vs 29.6 mL — only ~4% difference, though). For most cooking the difference is forgiving; for baking it can ruin the result.
Oven temperature conversions
Common baking temperatures:
- Very low: 200°F / 95°C / Gas 1/4 (drying, dehydrating)
- Low: 275°F / 135°C / Gas 1 (slow roasting, meringues)
- Moderate-low: 325°F / 165°C / Gas 3 (custards, cheesecake)
- Moderate: 350°F / 175°C / Gas 4 (most cookies, cakes, casseroles)
- Moderate-high: 375°F / 190°C / Gas 5 (layer cakes, pies, quick breads)
- Hot: 400°F / 200°C / Gas 6 (roasted vegetables, pizza)
- Very hot: 425°F / 220°C / Gas 7 (roast chicken, pizza, crusty bread)
- Searing: 450°F / 230°C / Gas 8 (intense roasting, broiling)
- Maximum: 500°F+ / 260°C+ / Gas 9–10 (hearth bread, pizza ovens)
Recipe scaling by weight is easier
Doubling or halving a recipe is simple math when working in weight: 250g flour doubles to 500g. With volume measurements, halving 1.5 cups means measuring 3/4 cup — annoying but doable. Halving 1/3 cup means 1 tbsp + 2.5 tsp — annoying.
Once you're scaling 3× or 7× (large dinner parties, batch baking), weight-based recipes are dramatically easier to work with.
Substitution caveats
- Butter to oil: not 1:1 by volume. Use 3/4 the amount of oil for melted butter (oil is denser per cup but butter has water).
- All-purpose to bread flour: use 1:1 by weight, but the result will have more chew (more gluten development).
- Granulated to brown sugar: 1:1 by weight, but adds molasses flavor and extra moisture. Reduce other liquids slightly.
- Honey to sugar: roughly 3/4 cup honey per cup of sugar; reduce other liquids by 1/4 cup; lower oven temp by 25°F.
For other measurement tools: Unit Converter for any conversion, Macro Calculator for protein/carb/fat targets in cooking, and Calorie Calculator for daily nutrition needs.