Kitchen FAQ
Short, honest answers to the questions home cooks actually ask. If you want the full explanation, follow the link at the end of each answer.
Cups, grams, and volume vs weight
- How many grams are in one cup?
- A US cup is 236.6 milliliters by volume. The weight depends on the ingredient. One cup of water is about 237 grams. One cup of all-purpose flour is about 120 grams. One cup of sugar is about 200 grams. One cup of butter is about 227 grams. Always pick the ingredient when converting cups to grams, otherwise the answer is wrong for baking.
- Is one cup always 240 ml?
- No. A standard US cup is 236.5882365 ml. Many sources round to 240 ml for simplicity. A metric cup (used in Australia and some European recipes) is 250 ml. The difference of 3 to 4 percent is usually fine for cooking but can affect delicate baking.
- Why does one cup of flour weigh less than one cup of sugar?
- Flour is less dense than sugar. Granulated sugar packs closely into the cup; flour has more air. Cocoa powder is even less dense than flour (about 85 grams per cup). Honey is much denser (about 336 grams per cup). Volume measurement does not see density, only space, which is why weighing matters for baking.
- Should I use cups or grams when baking?
- Grams. A kitchen scale removes the variability of how you scoop flour, how packed the brown sugar is, and how settled the cocoa powder happens to be. Most professional bakers and recipe writers now publish weights for this reason. A basic digital scale costs less than a set of measuring cups.
Tablespoons and teaspoons
- How many tablespoons are in a cup?
- Sixteen US tablespoons make one US cup. Eight tablespoons make half a cup. Four tablespoons make a quarter cup. Twelve tablespoons make three quarters of a cup.
- How many teaspoons are in a tablespoon?
- Three US teaspoons make one US tablespoon. So one and a half teaspoons is half a tablespoon. The Australian tablespoon is 4 teaspoons (20 ml), so Australian recipes use a slightly larger tablespoon than US recipes.
Recipe scaling
- How do I scale a recipe up or down?
- Divide the desired servings by the original servings to get a multiplier, then multiply each ingredient by that number. The Recipe Scaler does this automatically and rounds the results to clean kitchen fractions where possible.
- Can I double any recipe?
- Most stews, soups, cookies, muffins, and quick breads double cleanly. Delicate baked goods like soufflés, choux, and meringues do not always scale, because the mixing volume changes the structure. For those, two batches at the original size are safer than one doubled batch.
- Do I scale the cooking time when I scale a recipe?
- Sometimes. Doubling a casserole usually adds about 25 percent to the time, not 100 percent. Cookies and thin batters scale closer to linear, since pan depth does not change much. Roasts scale by weight and oven thermometer, not by recipe time. For any larger batch, check doneness early with a thermometer or a toothpick.
Oven and temperature
- What is 350°F in Celsius?
- 350 degrees Fahrenheit is 176.7 degrees Celsius, usually rounded to 175 or 180. Most US baking recipes call for 325, 350, or 375 Fahrenheit, which map to roughly 160, 175, and 190 Celsius respectively.
- What is the formula for Fahrenheit to Celsius?
- Subtract 32, then multiply by 5 and divide by 9. So F minus 32, times 5, divided by 9, equals C. Going the other way: C times 9, divided by 5, plus 32 equals F.
- Is a fan oven the same temperature as a regular oven?
- No. A fan oven (convection) circulates hot air and cooks faster. Drop the temperature by about 20 degrees Celsius (about 35 Fahrenheit) when a recipe is written for a conventional oven and you are using fan. Or keep the temperature and check 10 to 15 percent earlier.
Ingredients and equipment
- How much does one stick of butter weigh?
- A US stick of butter is half a cup, 8 tablespoons, and 113 grams (4 ounces). Two sticks make one cup. Imperial recipes from the UK or Australia do not use sticks; they call for grams directly.
- What is the difference between packed and unpacked brown sugar?
- Brown sugar is almost always measured packed, meaning pressed firmly into the cup. Packed brown sugar weighs about 213 grams per cup. Unpacked, it falls closer to 145 grams. If a recipe does not say which, assume packed.
- Do I need a kitchen scale for baking?
- For everyday baking, you can survive with cups, but the results will vary. For recipes you want to nail, a digital kitchen scale (around 20 to 40 dollars) is the single biggest accuracy upgrade you can make. Look for one with a tare button, gram precision, and a capacity of at least 5 kilograms.
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