Or how to follow an American recipe without threatening your kitchen scale.
Every now and then, I find a recipe that says something like:
“1 cup flour, 6 oz chocolate, 2 tablespoons butter. Bake at 350°F.”
I look at the recipe.
The recipe looks at me.
And for a brief moment, we agree that communication has failed.
If, like me, you regularly wander between European, British and American recipes, you will eventually encounter cups, ounces, pounds and Fahrenheit.
None of them are particularly difficult once you know what they mean.
But apparently humanity looked at flour and decided:
You know what this needs? Several completely different systems of measurement.
So I made this little guide.
Partly for you.
Mostly because I was tired of googling “350 Fahrenheit in Celsius” while holding a bowl of cake batter.
First: not every “cup” is the same cup
I know.
I’m sorry.
A standard US cup is approximately:
237 ml
A metric cup, commonly used in places such as Australia, is:
250 ml
And the old British imperial cup was around:
284 ml.
Thankfully, modern British recipes generally use grams and millilitres.
Which is one of the reasons I still trust Britain.
Mostly.
For American recipes, I usually treat:
1 cup ≈ 240 ml
For soups, sauces and most everyday cooking, those extra three millilitres are unlikely to destroy your dinner.
Cups and liquids
These are the conversions I use most often:
| US measurement | Metric |
|---|---|
| ¼ teaspoon | 1.25 ml |
| ½ teaspoon | 2.5 ml |
| 1 teaspoon / tsp | 5 ml |
| 1 tablespoon / tbsp | 15 ml |
| ¼ cup | about 60 ml |
| ⅓ cup | about 80 ml |
| ½ cup | about 120 ml |
| ⅔ cup | about 160 ml |
| ¾ cup | about 180 ml |
| 1 cup | about 240 ml |
| 2 cups | about 475 ml |
| 4 cups | about 950 ml |
So if an American recipe asks for ½ cup of milk, you can use roughly 120 ml.
Easy.
Everybody is still friends.
But how many grams are in a cup?
Here comes the annoying part.
You cannot convert cups directly into grams without knowing what you’re measuring.
Cups measure volume.
Grams measure weight.
A cup of flour does not weigh the same as a cup of sugar.
A cup of butter definitely doesn’t weigh the same as a cup of raspberries.
Physics has chosen violence.
Here are a few useful approximations:
| 1 US cup of… | Approximately |
|---|---|
| Plain flour | 120–125 g |
| Granulated sugar | 200 g |
| Icing sugar | 120 g |
| Packed brown sugar | 200–220 g |
| Butter | 227 g |
| Chocolate chips | 170 g |
| Cocoa powder | 85 g |
This is also why, whenever possible, I bake using grams.
My kitchen scale has never asked me whether I packed my brown sugar tightly enough.
She knows her job.
Ounces: the mysterious “oz”
One ounce is:
1 oz = 28.35 g
For everyday cooking, remembering:
1 oz ≈ 28 g
is perfectly good enough.
| Ounces | Grams |
|---|---|
| 1 oz | 28 g |
| 2 oz | 57 g |
| 3 oz | 85 g |
| 4 oz | 113 g |
| 5 oz | 142 g |
| 6 oz | 170 g |
| 7 oz | 198 g |
| 8 oz | 227 g |
| 10 oz | 284 g |
| 12 oz | 340 g |
| 16 oz | 454 g |
You’ll see 8 oz / 227 g quite often with butter, cream cheese and chocolate.
Three extremely respectable ingredients.
Pounds (lb)
One pound is:
1 lb = 453.6 g
In the kitchen, just remember:
1 lb ≈ 454 g
Which gives us:
¼ lb ≈ 113 g
½ lb ≈ 227 g
1 lb ≈ 454 g
2 lb ≈ 907 g
So if a recipe asks for half a pound of chocolate, you’ll need roughly 225–230 g.
Possibly slightly more if you intend to eat some during preparation.
Which you do.
Plan accordingly.
And now: Fahrenheit
This is probably the conversion I use most often.
You find a lovely American cake recipe.
You scroll down.
And then:
Bake at 350°F.
If you’re used to Celsius, 350 degrees sounds less like baking and more like destroying evidence.
Don’t panic.
Fahrenheit → Celsius
The exact formula is:
°C = (°F − 32) × 5 ÷ 9
So for 350°F:
350 − 32 = 318
318 × 5 ÷ 9 ≈ 177°C
In real-life baking terms:
350°F ≈ 180°C
Nobody needs to set their oven to 176.666666°C.
Your muffins are not conducting laboratory research.
Celsius → Fahrenheit
Going the other way:
°F = (°C × 9 ÷ 5) + 32
For example:
180°C = 356°F
But recipes will generally round that to:
350°F
Again, your cake will cope.
It is stronger than you think.
The oven temperature cheat sheet
This is the table worth saving:
| Fahrenheit | Celsius |
|---|---|
| 250°F | 120°C |
| 275°F | 135°C |
| 300°F | 150°C |
| 325°F | 160–165°C |
| 350°F | 175–180°C |
| 375°F | 190°C |
| 400°F | 200°C |
| 425°F | 220°C |
| 450°F | 230°C |
| 475°F | 245°C |
| 500°F | 260°C |
If you only remember four:
350°F ≈ 180°C
375°F ≈ 190°C
400°F ≈ 200°C
425°F ≈ 220°C
Those four will get you surprisingly far.
And because I live in France: thermostat numbers
French recipes occasionally give oven temperatures as “thermostat 6” or “thermostat 7.”
Because apparently Celsius wasn’t enough.
Fortunately, there’s a very easy shortcut:
thermostat number × 30 ≈ °C
So:
| Thermostat | Celsius |
|---|---|
| 4 | 120°C |
| 5 | 150°C |
| 6 | 180°C |
| 7 | 210°C |
| 8 | 240°C |
Which means:
350°F ≈ 180°C ≈ thermostat 6
Three different ways to ask an oven to do approximately the same thing.
International cooperation is beautiful.
Fan oven vs conventional oven
One last little trap.
If a recipe gives a temperature for a conventional oven, you’ll usually need to lower it slightly for a fan-assisted oven.
A useful rule is:
reduce the temperature by about 15–20°C.
So:
180°C conventional → about 160°C fan
That said, ovens have personalities.
Mine and I have reached an uneasy diplomatic agreement.
Get to know yours.
What I actually remember
I would love to tell you that all these conversions now live permanently inside my brain.
They don’t.
What I actually remember is:
1 tsp = 5 ml
1 tbsp = 15 ml
1 cup ≈ 240 ml
1 oz ≈ 28 g
1 lb ≈ 454 g
350°F ≈ 180°C
Everything else?
I check the table.
That’s why I made the table.
Eva’s kitchen rule
When you’re baking and a recipe gives you the choice between cups and grams:
use the grams.
Please.
Cups are perfectly useful for liquids and forgiving recipes, but flour is surprisingly easy to overmeasure depending on how you fill the cup.
A kitchen scale is faster, cleaner and much more consistent.
And if my grandmother taught me anything, it’s that baking already contains enough opportunities for chaos.
We don’t need to manufacture additional ones.
The extremely scientific conclusion
You do not need to memorise every conversion to cook recipes from around the world.
Remember a few useful ones.
Keep this page somewhere nearby.
And when you inevitably forget whether 375°F is 180°C or 190°C, come back and check.
There is absolutely no prize for doing temperature conversions in your head while something is burning.
Save the butter first.
The maths can wait. ❤️
Good food, warm stories, questionable decisions.