The cup is a unit of measurement for volume, used in cooking to measure liquids (fluid measurement) and bulk foods such as granulated sugar (dry measurement) in many countries, although different countries use different sizes. This measure is usually used as an informal unit in cooking recipes rather than as a measure for the sale of foodstuffs; precision is rarely required. The United States defines a legal cup used for nutritional labelling of foodstuffs.
Actual cups used in a household in any country may differ from the cup size used for recipes; standard measuring cups, often calibrated in fluid measure and weights of usual dry ingredients as well as in cups, are available.
Contents |
Definitions
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There is no internationally-agreed standard definition of the cup, whose modern volume ranges between 200 and 284 millilitres.[1] The cup sizes generally used in the many Commonwealth countries and the United States differ by up to 44 mL (1.5 fl oz).
No matter what size cup is used, all the ingredients measured with the same size cup will be in the same proportion to one another, although not to ingredients measured differently (by weight, teaspoons, etc.).
Commonwealth of Nations
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- Imperial cup
- The imperial cup is unofficially defined as half an imperial pint.
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1 imperial cup = 0.5 imperial pints = 2 imperial gills = 10 imperial fluid ounces = 284 millilitres ≈ 19 international tablespoons[2][3] ≈ 14¼ Australian tablespoons[4] ≈ 1.20 U.S. customary cups ≈ 9.61 U.S. customary fluid ounces
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- Metric cup
- In Australia, Canada, New Zealand one cup is commonly defined as 250 millilitres.
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1 metric cup = 250 millilitres = 16⅔ international tablespoons (15 mL each) = 12½ Australian tablespoons ≈ 8.80 imperial fluid ounces ≈ 8.45 U.S. customary fluid ounces
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United States
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- United States customary cup
- United States customary cup is defined as half a U.S. pint.
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1 U.S. customary cup = 0.5 U.S. customary pints = 2 U.S. customary gills = 8 U.S. customary fluid ounces = 16 U.S. customary tablespoons = 237 millilitres ≈ 15⅔ international tablespoons[5] ≈ 11¾ Australian tablespoons ≈ 0.833 imperial cups ≈ 8.33 imperial fluid ounces
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- United States "legal" cup
- The cup currently used in the United States for nutrition labelling is defined in United States law as 240 mL.[6][7][8]
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1 U.S. "legal" cup = 240 millilitres = 16 international tablespoons = 12 Australian tablespoons ≈ 8.12 U.S. customary fluid ounces ≈ 8.45 imperial fluid ounces
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Japan
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- Japanese cup
- The Japanese cup is currently defined as 200 mL.
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1 Japanese cup = 200 millilitres ≈ 7.04 imperial fluid ounces ≈ 6.76 U.S. customary fluid ounces
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- Gō
- The traditional Japanese cup, the gō, is approximately 180 mL. 10 gō make one shō, the traditional flask size, approximately 1.8 litres. Gō cups are typically used for measuring rice, and sake is typically sold by both the cup (180 mL) and flask (1.8 litre) sizes.
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1 gō = 2401⁄13310 litres[9] ≈ 180 millilitres ≈ 6.35 imperial fluid ounces ≈ 6.10 U.S. customary fluid ounces
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Using volume measures to estimate mass
In Europe, cooking recipes normally state any liquid volumes larger than a few tablespoons in millilitres, the scale found on most measuring cups worldwide. Non-liquid ingredients are normally weighed in grams instead, using a kitchen scale, rather than measured in cups. Some recipes in Europe use the decilitre (1 dl = 100 mL) as a measure of volume. For example, where an American customary recipe might specify "1 cup of sugar and 2 cups of milk", a European recipe might specify "200 g sugar and 500 mL of milk" (or ½ litre or 5 decilitres). Conversion between the two measures must take into account the density of the ingredients. Many European measuring cups have additional scales for common bulk ingredients like sugar, flour, or rice to make the process easier.
| Volume to mass conversions for some common cooking ingredients | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ingredient | density g/mL[10] |
metric cup | imperial cup | U.S. customary cup | |||
| g | oz | g | oz | g | oz | ||
| water[11] | 1[12] | 249–250 | 8.8 | 283–284 | 10 | 236–237 | 8.3[13] |
| granulated sugar | 0.8[14] | 200 | 7.0 | 230 | 8.0 | 190 | 6.7 |
| wheat flour | 0.5–0.6[14] | 120–150 | 4.4–5.3 | 140–170 | 5.0–6.0 | 120–140 | 4.2–5.0 |
| table salt | 1.2[14] | 300 | 10.6 | 340 | 12.0 | 280 | 10.0 |
Notes and references
- ^ Cup sizes in recipes are not necessarily the same as customary serving sizes for beverages. For example, a cup of brewed coffee in the U.S. is typically 6 U.S. fluid ounces (180 mL).
- ^ In the absence of measuring cups, tablespoons can be used for volume measurement.
- ^ The term international tablespoon as used in this article refers to the 15 mL (~½ fl oz) tablespoon used in most countries.
- ^ The Australia tablespoon is defined as 20 mL (~⅔ fl oz)
- ^ Note: 1 U.S. customary cup = 16 tablespoons exactly using the old U.S. customary tablespoon of ½ U.S. fl oz.
- ^ (21 CFR 101.9 (b) (5) (viii)
- ^ U.S. Government Printing Office—Electronic Code of Federal Regulations
- ^ U.S. Food and Drug Administration—Guidelines for Determining Metric Equivalents of Household Measures
- ^ by 1891 definition
- ^ One gram per millilitre is very close to one avoirdupois ounce per fluid ounce: 1 g/ml ≈ 1.002 av oz/imp fl oz This is not a numerical coincidence, but comes from the original definition of the kilogram as the mass of one litre of water, and the imperial gallon as the volume occupied by ten avoirdupois pounds of water. The slight difference is due to water at 4 °C (39 °F) being used for the kilogram, and at 62 °F (17 °C) for the imperial gallon. The U.S. fluid ounce is slightly larger.
- 1 g/mL ≈ 1.043 av oz/U.S. fl oz
- ^ 1 g/mL is a good rough guide for water-based liquids such as milk (the density of milk is about 1.03–1.04 g/mL).
- ^ The density of water ranges from about 0.96 to 1.00 g/mL dependent on temperature and pressure. The table above assumes a temperature range 0–30 °C (32–86 °F). The variation is too small to make any difference in cooking.
- ^ Since an imperial cup of water weighs approximately 10 avoirdupois ounces and five imperial cups are approximately equal to six U.S. cups, one U.S. cup of water weighs approximately 8⅓ avoirdupois ounces.
- ^ a b c L. Fulton, E. Matthews, C. Davis: Average weight of a measured cup of various foods. Home Economics Research Report No. 41, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC, 1977.
External links
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Look up cup in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
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