A British kitchen companion

A little less guesswork

Cupstograms.food is a small personal hobby project to help UK cooks use American recipes. No accounts, analytics or advertising; your calculations stay in your browser.

Cups aren’t all created equal

We use a US customary cup: 236.5882365 ml (displayed as 236.6 ml), with 16 US tablespoons or 48 US teaspoons. This is not a 250 ml metric cup or an old imperial cup. Spoon units here are US measures.

Each ingredient has its own reference weight. Flour should be fluffed, spooned in and levelled; brown sugar is packed. Brands, humidity and measuring technique all change the result. Weighing ingredients is more reliable, and a recipe author’s own gram measurements take priority.

The 60 ingredient references were checked against King Arthur Baking’s Ingredient Weight Chart (opens in a new tab) on 30 October 2026. Smaller source measures are scaled to a cup. Butter uses 1 US stick = 4 avoirdupois ounces = 113.3980925 g (½ cup), consistent with the chart’s rounded 113 g. An ounce means weight, never fluid ounces.

Volume to weight: quantity × cups per unit × ingredient grams per cup. Reverse conversions use the same values. Millilitres use the selected ingredient’s estimated density, even for dry ingredients. Results are rounded for display only; extra decimal places do not mean greater accuracy. Tiny positive results show “< 0.01” rather than zero.

Oven settings need context

Exact temperature conversion uses °C = (°F − 32) × 5 ÷ 9. Calculations retain precision internally and mathematical equivalents display whole degrees. For Fahrenheit reference temperatures, the prominent cooking settings use the rounded reference table; other entries use the calculated temperature. Your entered Celsius setting is kept, rounded to a whole degree. Fan guidance subtracts 20°C and is approximate. Already-fan Celsius input adds 20°C to estimate the conventional setting.

Our reference settings follow Which?’s oven chart (opens in a new tab) and Good Food’s conversion guide (opens in a new tab), checked 30 October 2026. Gas mark is the nearest listed Fahrenheit setting, explicitly approximate; outside 225–475°F we don’t suggest one. Gas mark 3 is 160°C conventional / 140°C fan. Always follow your oven manual and check food is safely cooked.

Names, and swaps that need care

The dictionary separates everyday name equivalents from substitutions. Plain flour and all-purpose flour describe the same general ingredient, but brand protein levels vary. Digestive biscuits for graham crackers and dark chocolate for semisweet are imperfect swaps.

Key terminology was cross-checked with Good Food’s ingredient glossary (opens in a new tab). Cream notes use US heavy-cream rules (opens in a new tab) and UK cream designation guidance (opens in a new tab). Syrup or biscuit substitutions are starting points for ordinary baking, not guaranteed replacements for every recipe. Check allergies and labels yourself.

Keep it practical

The dataset covers 60 carefully selected ingredients. We’d rather show a clear, sourced assumption than pretend every ingredient has one universal weight.