Ever since we discovered fire over one million years ago we have been able to develop culinary skills and, oh boy, have they developed! Now there are more than 660,000 restaurants across the United States.
Whether you’re visiting a chain or a local independent restaurant, or cooking at home there is one key to a truly enjoyable meal: nailing the recipe. This doesn’t just mean timing everything right. Knowing exactly what quantities you need to use makes the difference between a delicious dish and a disastrous dinner!
So how many grams should you use when the recipe asks for three pounds or two cups? With so much inconsistency in cookbooks across America, doing all this math can be an additional challenge.
If you’ve found yourself frowning over your cookbook and need to know how many grams are in an ounce and more, you’re in the right place! Read on to find out everything you need to know about measurement conversions to keep your dishes on point.
What Different Kinds of Measurements are There?
When it comes to cooking, the measurements you’ll come across most often are units of volume and units of weight.
Volume is usually used to measure out quantities of liquid, for example, pints or liters. Some units, such as teaspoons or tablespoons, are also used to measure out small quantities of dry ingredients. Other units of the volume include:
- Fluid ounces (fl oz)
- Cups or gills (c or 1/2 c)
- Quarts (q)
- Gallons (g or gal)
- Milliliters (ml)
Measurements of weight come from either the metric or imperial measurement systems. These include:
- Pounds (lb)
- Ounces (oz)
- Milligrams (mg)
- Grams (g)
- Kilograms (kg)
It is important when measuring out ingredients that you use the same system for all your measurements. So if you are measuring your weight using kilograms from the metric system, you should measure your volume in liters or milliliters. Or if you are measuring using the imperial system, you should use this throughout.
What’s the Difference Between Metric and Imperial Measurements?
Imperial measurements are commonly used in the United States, while metric measurements are used in Canada and Europe.
The imperial measurements were originally used by the British Empire from 1824 to 1965 and date back to the Middle Ages. British colonizers brought this system over to America from the UK. However, when Europe and the UK adopted the metric system, the US decided to stick with the imperial system instead.
The metric units for volume are millimeters and liters. For weight, the metric system uses grams and kilograms.
The imperial system uses pounds and ounces to measure weight. Fluid ounces, cups, pints, quarts, and gallons are all used to measure volume. Technically, tablespoon and teaspoon measurements also belong to the imperial system.
How Do You Convert Within the Metric System?
So how many grams are in a kilogram? Converting from one measurement to another in the metric system is relatively straight forward. There are 1000 grams in a kilogram and 1000 milliliters in a liter.
So, for example, 1/4 l is the same as 250 ml. You simply divide 1000 by 4 and you’re there.
Most recipes will simplify things by using the smallest number possible in their ingredient listings. For example, measuring out 3 liters of water sounds a lot less complicated than measuring out 3000 milliliters.
How Do You Convert Within the Imperial System?
The imperial system may take a little more brainpower as it doesn’t use simple numbers with easy multiples.
This is partly because the whole system was originally based on counting out how much of one substance it took to match the weight or volume of another. For example, the amount of grain it took to equal the weight of three coins. These quantities rarely came to easy numbers like 5, 10, 50, or 100!
As such, there are 16 pounds in an ounce. So two pounds equal 32 ounces, four pounds equal 64 ounces, and so on. You can find the number of pounds needed by dividing your number of ounces by 16.
When it comes to volume, things get a little more complicated as we have more units to handle. Let’s take a look at things in their most simple form:
- 5 fluid ounces = one gill (or half-cup)
- 2 gills = one cup
- 2 cups = one pint
- 2 pints = one quart
- 4 quarts = one gallon
From this, you may be able to work out that there are, for example, 20 fl oz in a pint and 8 pints in a gallon. Again, this is something that most recipes should simplify for you.
How Do You Convert Between Different Measurements?
Understanding how to work between different measurements within one system is all well and good. But what do you do if you get a recipe that uses measurements you aren’t familiar with? This is something even the best chefs have to handle from time to time.
If you have your phone or laptop to hand, you can just click here to use an easy online conversion tool. However, it’s useful to have a rough idea of the math. Let’s take a look at how to convert between different weights.
How Many Grams Are in Ounces and Pounds?
Pounds and ounces are much smaller quantities than grams or kilograms. So you need more of them to make up the same weight.
In fact, one gram is equal to 0.022 pounds and one pound is equal to 453.6g. As you can probably imagine, this is why mixing up your units could cause serious problems when cooking. You can convert between the two using simple multiplication or division (although you might want to use a calculator!)
To get from grams to pounds, multiply your number of grams by 0.0022. You can do this using a calculator. However, you can also do this by hand by multiplying the number of grams by two and then dividing by one thousand.
Let’s say your recipe calls for 20g of flour. Multiply this by two and you get 40g, then divide it by one thousand. This gives you 0.04 lb, which is how much you need to use!
To help you out, here are some approximate equivalents that you can keep in mind to help you out:
- 1 ounce equals approximately 25g
- 8 ounces (or half a pound) equal approximately 225g
- 16 ounces (or one pound) equal approximately 500g
- 40 ounces (or 2 lb 4 oz) equal approximately 1kg
In particular, if you can keep in mind that one ounce equals 25g you should be able to do the approximate math from there. Either multiply your ounces by 25 to get grams or divide your grams by 25 to get ounces.
How Many Grams in a Cup?
In the US, we can use cups to measure out dry ingredients as well as wet ones. This is why you may find that a recipe calls for 1/2 a cup of flour or 2 cups of butter. It’s important to note that, when this happens, you are dealing with weight not volume.
So let’s say you have a recipe in grams that you want to convert into cups: how do you do that? Well, the first thing you need to look at is what ingredients you’re using. For example:
- 1 cup of butter equals 227g
- 1 cup of plain or self-raising flour equals 125g
- 1 cup of bread flour equals 130g
- 1 cup of honey equals 336g
- 1 cup of margarine equals 230g
- 1 cup of oats equals 102.2g
- 1 cup of granulated sugar equals 201g
- 1 cup of brown sugar equals 195g
- 1 cup of powdered sugar equals 120.9g
Using these quantities you can find out how many cups you need of your dry ingredients using simple division.
For example, if your recipe calls for 400g of plain flour, you need to divide this number by 130. This gives you 3.08 or just over 3 cups of plain flour.
If you need to convert from cups to grams, simply multiply depending on which ingredients you are using. So 4 cups of brown sugar are the same as 780g of brown sugar.
Keep in mind, however, that if you are dealing with wet ingredients such as milk, water, or oil, you need to convert between cups and milliliters or liters.
Ready, Steady, Cook!
When it comes to recipes, do not let the differences in imperial and metric measurements put you off trying a new dish! Converting from one to another is simple now you know how many grams are in a pound, an ounce, or a cup.
Just remember when you’re cooking, whichever units you choose to use, remain consistent throughout. Mixing imperial with metric could end in disaster.
If that’s got you excited for your kitchen, head over to our recipes section for more brilliant culinary inspiration!
