Recipe Converter

1. Recipe unit conversions
2. Useful recipe conversions
3. Recipe conversion examples
• Tablespoons to cups
• Cups to ml
• Cups to grams
4. Spoons and cups to grams conversion tables
• Spoons and cups of water to grams table
• Spoons and cups of flour to grams table
• Spoons and cups of butter to grams table
5. Supported ingredients

    Recipe unit conversions

Recipes from different regions, time periods, or cultural traditions often feature characteristic measurement units. However, it is often those recipe books and notes that contain the most interesting and unique culinary findings for a chef or a home cook. Conversion of one measure to another is therefore often a necessity.

Simple conversions involve those of one unit to another unit of the same kind, especially if they belong to the same system. Teaspoons to tablespoons, cups to tablespoons, and milliliters to liters are all examples of such easy conversions. Things get more complicated when there is a need to convert a unit from one system to another such as cups to ml, tbsp to ml, liters to cup, etc. Typically one needs to consider the metric system, as well as US measurement units and Imperial or UK units.

Finally, the most difficult conversions are those involving units of different kinds. Most commonly one may find themselves converting weight to volume, or volume to weight, for example grams to cups, or grams to tablespoons, or cups to grams, or teaspoons to milligrams. The difficulty in such cases comes from the need to consider the density of the ingredient, and it is typically only an average or estimate of the true density. For your convenience, our recipe converter has in-built data about the average densities of over twenty commonly used ingredients.

    Useful recipe conversions

In terms of utility, the most useful conversions are those of units of the same kind: tsp to tbsp, tbsp to cups, cups to ml, tbsp to ml, grams to ounces, ounces to grams, etc. These are done when one has a kitchen scale or measurement container which supports only a particular measurement system.

Conversions between mass and volume or vice versa are not as recommended since there is inherent loss of accuracy in any such conversion due to an integral part of the calculation - the density - only being an estimate. As a general rule, if a measurement is given in a unit of mass (g, kg, oz, pound) it is best not to convert it into units of volume as the latter are inherently less accurate especially for non-liquid ingredients.

    Recipe conversion examples

A variety of example conversions below can give you a sense of what is involved, mathematically, and math in the kitchen can be a challenge.

Tablespoons to cups

Sample task: convert 8 tablespoons to cups, given that one US cup equals 16.23 tablespoons. Solution:

Formula:
tbsp / 16.23 = cups
Calculation:
8 tbsp / 16.23 = 0.492914 cups
End result:
8 tbsp is equal to 0.492914 cups

For practical purposes in the kitchen this can be rounded to half a cup.

Cups to ml

Sample task: convert 2 cups to ml using the US legal cup definition of one cup equals 240 ml. Solution:

Formula:
cups * 240 = ml
Calculation:
2 cups * 240 = 480 ml
End result:
2 cups is equal to 480 ml

Cups to grams

Sample task: convert 4 cups of water to grams, knowing that the density of water is approximately 1 g/ml and using the US legal cup of 240 ml. Solution:

Formula:
cups * 240 = g
Calculation:
4 cups * 240 = 960 g
End result:
4 cups is equal to 960 g

    Spoons and cups to grams conversion tables

For your convenience, below you will find conversion charts for some of the most used cooking ingredients, namely water, flour, and butter.

Spoons and cups of water to grams table

This table contains often used quantities of water in teaspoons, tablespoons, and US Legal Cups and their corresponding values in grams. Other ingredients and quantities are supported in our recipe converter above.

Spoons and cups of flour to grams table

Below is a kitchen conversion chart in US teaspoons, tablespoons, and cups of flour and their corresponding values in grams.

Spoons and cups of butter to grams table

Here is a conversion chart between US teaspoons, US tablespoons, and US Legal Cups of butter and grams.

    Supported ingredients

The ingredients currently supported by the converter include:

• Water
• Flour
• Caster Sugar
• Granulated Sugar
• Icing / Powdered Sugar
• Brown Sugar
• Salt
• Butter
• Vegetable Oil
• Milk
• Peanut Butter
• Runny Honey
• Maple Syrup
• Creams
• Rice
• Ground Almonds
• Chia Seeds
• Cocoa Powder
• Chocolate Chips
• Custard

For other dedicated recipe ingredient quantity converters see butter to oil conversion, oil to butter conversion, our butter converter and our yeast conversion calculator.