How big a cup is one cup? In Engand what's our equivelent measurement. I've been working on how much food weighs, but I keep coming up against this one. Could anyone advise me. Thanks!!

SebastienC

Hi Sebastien,

According to this site 1 US cup is nearly 240 mL.

HTH!

Rosebud

Sebastian

I have given up on US cups, although I have brought a set of cup measures myself. That site that Rosebud refers to also says that:

1 cup [US] = 8.326742 ounce [UK, liquid]

If you have a measuring jug, then you can fill it up to the appropriate number of fluid ounces, with solid or liquid.

It is always said that everything is bigger in the US. True......EXCEPT liquid measurement.

A fluid ounce in US is the same as UK. An oz in weight is the same.

We also agree that 1 fluid oz = 1 oz weight. But there it ends.

For some reason the UK has decided that a 1 pint = 20 fluid oz.
Whereas in the USA perhaps more logical 1 pint = 1 pound (16oz)

It is therefore easier for the US to interchange fluid and weight in the same measurement... a cup . The cup of water is half an american pint and weighs half an american pound.


We have gone metric just to confuse things. But usefully 1ml liquid weighs 1 gram. For liquids therfore 1 fluid ounce is aprox. 28ml and weighs approx 28grams.

So much for liquids.

Dry goods go completely out the window. Cauliflower does not seem to flow as nicely as tea. And my rocket salad does not seem to weigh as much as a cup of sugar!. Even loose goods that "pour" are different. 1 cup of flour weighs 5 ounces (140g) but 1 cup of granulated sugar weighs 6.75 ounces(200g).

The only thing to do is to get a measuring jug and let 225mls equal one cup and 450mls (close to half a litre) equal 2 cups and see how much you can fit in. I would not dream of telling you what to do with bananas and carrots!

In US cooking terms
1 cup = 8 oz
1 pint = 16 oz

nothing is ever weighed in US, therefore, when a recipe calls for a cup of any ingredient, whether it be liquid, dry, or semi-solid (eg butter), the ingredient is measured up to the one cup mark in your measuring cup. For convenience, liquid ingredients are measured in a pouring jug (Pyrex et al), and dry/semi-solid ones are levelled off in those scoop-style cups now found in plentiful supply in this country.

If you want an easy life, when using American recipes, have to hand a measuring jug, a set of measuring cups (and spoons!), and something to level off the excess and don't even contemplate looking at your scales....we Americans never grasped the concept of actually weighing our ingredients

I didn't know that in the UK you weigh the ingredents...even like flour and water and peanut butter huh??

Well of course not flour now since we are low carb...and peanut butter only if your off induction