Cooking Unit Converter
This cooking unit converter handles the most common kitchen measurement headaches — converting cups to grams for solid ingredients, tablespoons to millilitres for liquids, ounces to grams for international recipes. Different ingredients have different densities, so 1 cup of flour weighs much less than 1 cup of sugar. The converter accounts for this with ingredient-specific densities, including the ones most relevant to Indian kitchens: maida, atta, rice, dal, ghee, jaggery.
The point of this isn't pedantry. If you're halving a recipe that calls for 2 cups of flour, the conversion to grams matters because home measuring cups vary (a US cup is 240 ml, a metric cup is 250 ml, a UK cup is 284 ml). Switching to gram measurements once and using a kitchen scale produces noticeably better results in baking, where flour-to-water ratio is the single most important variable. For everyday cooking the precision matters less, but the converter is still useful when following a foreign recipe or scaling for a crowd.
How this calculator works
Why cooking measurements are inconsistent
Volume measurements (cups, tablespoons, teaspoons) are convenient but imprecise because density varies. One cup of all-purpose flour can weigh anywhere from 120 to 145 grams depending on whether it's sifted, scooped, spooned-and-levelled, or tightly packed. Recipe writers in different traditions disagree even on what "1 cup of flour" means — the King Arthur Baking Company uses 120 g per cup, Cooks Illustrated uses 142 g per cup, and Indian recipe sites often don't specify.
For most savoury cooking, this doesn't matter much. A dal that's slightly thicker or thinner is still good dal. For baking, it matters significantly. A cake recipe written assuming 120 g per cup, made with 145 g cups, has 20% too much flour by weight — the cake comes out dry, dense, or both.
The standard volume measures
| Unit | Equivalent |
|---|---|
| 1 US cup | 240 ml |
| 1 metric cup | 250 ml |
| 1 UK / Imperial cup | 284 ml |
| 1 Australian cup | 250 ml |
| 1 tablespoon (US) | 15 ml |
| 1 tablespoon (UK / Australia) | 15 ml (Australia 20 ml) |
| 1 teaspoon | 5 ml (consistent across countries) |
| 1 fluid ounce (US) | 29.57 ml |
| 1 fluid ounce (UK) | 28.41 ml |
This calculator defaults to the US cup (240 ml) since most online recipes use US measurements, but you can switch to metric or imperial if your recipe specifies.
Density values for common ingredients
The ingredients you'll most often need to convert from volume to weight:
| Ingredient | Grams per US cup | Grams per tablespoon |
|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour (maida) | 120 | 7.5 |
| Whole wheat flour (atta) | 130 | 8 |
| Granulated sugar | 200 | 12.5 |
| Brown sugar (packed) | 220 | 14 |
| Powdered sugar | 120 | 7.5 |
| Butter | 227 | 14 |
| Ghee | 225 | 14 |
| Vegetable oil | 218 | 14 |
| Milk | 245 | 15 |
| Honey | 340 | 21 |
| Yogurt (curd) | 245 | 15 |
| Rice (raw, basmati) | 200 | 12.5 |
| Toor dal (raw) | 200 | 12.5 |
| Moong dal (raw) | 200 | 12.5 |
| Salt | 290 | 18 |
| Cocoa powder | 85 | 5.3 |
| Chopped nuts | 120 | 7.5 |
Notice how different sugar (200 g/cup) and butter (227 g/cup) are from flour (120 g/cup) — they're close to twice as dense. This is why "1 cup" is a misleading comparison and why bakers prefer weight measurements.
The Indian-specific challenge
Recipes published in Indian magazines, blogs and books often use idiosyncratic measurements — "1 katori", "1 vati", "1 medium glass". These don't have standardised volumes. A katori in one kitchen is 150 ml, in another 200 ml. The same is true of "small/medium/large onion" or "1 fistful of dhania". For everyday cooking, this works because Indian dishes are forgiving of small variations. For sharing recipes precisely or scaling reliably, volume or weight measurements work better.
Temperature conversions matter too
Most Indian ovens display temperatures in Celsius. Many international recipes (especially American) use Fahrenheit. The conversions for common baking temperatures:
- 180°C = 350°F (most cakes, cookies)
- 200°C = 400°F (bread, pizza, pastry)
- 160°C = 325°F (low-and-slow baking, custards)
- 220°C = 425°F (high-heat roasting)
The formula is straightforward: F = (C × 9/5) + 32, or C = (F − 32) × 5/9. A useful approximation: 350°F ≈ 175°C, close enough for cooking purposes.
When precision matters and when it doesn't
For baking and confectionery, weigh ingredients on a kitchen scale. The investment in a ₹500-1,500 digital scale pays off in better, more consistent results. Use this converter to translate volume-based recipes to weight when you're building your own recipe collection. For everyday cooking — sabzi, dal, curries, rice — volume measurements with a standard cup or katori are perfectly adequate. The dish is robust to ±15% variation in most ingredients. Don't fuss over precise gram measurements when the recipe explicitly says "to taste" or "as needed".
Worked example
Halving a banana bread recipe that calls for 2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, ½ cup butter:
- Original: 2 cups flour = 240 g; 1 cup sugar = 200 g; ½ cup butter = 113 g
- Halved: 120 g flour; 100 g sugar; 56 g butter
- Weighing produces consistent results regardless of how you're scooping
Indian recipe scaled for 6 from 4 servings — 1.5× ingredients:
- 1 cup basmati rice (200 g) becomes 1.5 cups (300 g)
- 1 tbsp ghee (14 g) becomes 1.5 tbsp (21 g)
- 1 tsp salt (6 g) becomes 1.5 tsp (9 g)
- For dal recipes scaled up, water typically scales sub-linearly — 1.5× rice doesn't need 1.5× water; 1.3× water is usually enough because evaporation is per-surface-area rather than per-volume
American recipe in Indian kitchen — 350°F oven, 2 cups flour, ½ cup vegetable oil:
- 350°F = 176°C (set Indian oven to 175°C)
- 2 cups (US) flour = 240 g
- ½ cup (US) vegetable oil = 109 g (or 120 ml)
- If your measuring cup is metric (250 ml), use 92% of the called-for cups: 1.84 cups instead of 2 — or just weigh