Cup (unit)
| cup | |
|---|---|
 A simple plastic measuring cup, capable of holding the volume one metric cup with a scale for US fluid ounces | |
| General information | |
| Unit system | US customary units |
| Unit of | Volume |
| Symbol | cup |
| Conversions (US) | |
| 1 US cup in ... | ... is equal to ... |
| SI units | 236.588 mL |
The cup is a cooking measure of volume, commonly associated with cooking and serving sizes. In the US, it is traditionally equal to one-half US pint (236.6 ml). Because actual drinking cups may differ greatly from the size of this unit, standard measuring cups may be used, with a metric cup commonly being rounded up to 240 millilitres (legal cup), but 250 ml is also used depending on the measuring scale.
United States
[edit]
Customary cup
[edit]
In the United States, the customary cup is half of a liquid pint.
| 1 US customary cup | = | 1⁄16 | US customary gallon |
| = | 1⁄4 | US customary quart | |
| = | 1⁄2 | US customary pint | |
| = | 8 | US customary fluid ounces | |
| = | 16 | US customary tablespoons | |
| = | 48 | US customary teaspoons | |
| = | 236.5882365 | milliliters exactly | |
| = | 15.7725491 | international tablespoons | |
| = | 11.829411825 | Australian tablespoons | |
| ≈ | 8 1⁄3 | imperial fluid ounces |
Legal cup
[edit]The cup currently used in the United States for nutrition labelling is defined in United States law as 240 ml.[1][2][3]
| 1 US "legal" cup | = | 240 | millilitres |
| = | 16 | international tablespoons | |
| = | 12 | Australian tablespoons | |
| = | 8 | US nutritional fluid ounces (30 ml each) | |
| ≈ | 8.12 | US customary fluid ounces | |
| ≈ | 8.45 | imperial fluid ounces |
Conversion table to US legal cup
[edit]The following information is describing that how to measure US legal cup in different ways.[4]
| 1 cubic meter | = | 4166.6667 | US legal cup |
| 1 litre | = | 4.16667 | US legal cup |
| 1 US legal tablespoon | = | 0.0625 | US legal cup |
| 1 US legal teaspoon | = | 0.020833333 | US legal cup |
| 1 US gallon | = | 15.772549 | US legal cup |
| 1 US pint | = | 1.9715686 | US legal cup |
| 1 US cup | = | 0.98578432 | US legal cup |
| 1 US fluid ounce | = | 0.12322304 | US legal cup |
| 1 US tablespoon | = | 0.06161152 | US legal cup |
| 1 US teaspoon | = | 0.020537173 | US legal cup |
| 1 imperial gallon | = | 18.942 | US legal cup |
| 1 imperial pint | = | 2.36776 | US legal cup |
| 1 imperial fluid ounce | = | 0.118388 | US legal cup |
| 1 imperial tablespoon | = | 0.0739924 | US legal cup |
| 1 imperial teaspoon | = | 0.0246641 | US legal cup |
| 1 US cubic foot | = | 117.987 | US legal cup |
| 1 US cubic inch | = | 0.0682794 | US legal cup |
Coffee cup
[edit]A "cup" of coffee in the US is usually 4 fluid ounces (118 ml), brewed using 5 fluid ounces (148 ml) of water. Coffee carafes used with drip coffee makers, e.g. Black and Decker models, have markings for both water and brewed coffee as the carafe is also used for measuring water prior to brewing.[5] A 12-cup carafe, for example, has markings for 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 cups of water or coffee, which correspond to 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 US fluid ounces (0.59, 0.89, 1.18, 1.48, and 1.77 litres) of water or 16, 24, 32, 40, and 48 US fluid ounces (0.47, 0.71, 0.95, 1.18, and 1.42 litres) of brewed coffee respectively, the difference being the volume absorbed by the coffee grounds and lost to evaporation during brewing.
Commonwealth of Nations
[edit]Metric cup
[edit]Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and some other members of the Commonwealth of Nations, being former British colonies that have since metricated, employ a "metric cup" of 250 millilitres.[6] Although derived from the metric system, it is not an SI unit.[7]
| 1 cup | = | 250 | millilitres |
| = | 162⁄3 | international tablespoons (15 ml each) | |
| = | 12.5 | Australian tablespoons (20 ml each) | |
| = | 25 | dessertspoons (10 ml each) | |
| ≈ | 8.80 | imperial fluid ounces | |
| ≈ | 8.45 | US customary fluid ounces |
A "coffee cup" is 1.5 dL (i.e. 150 millilitres or 5.07 US customary fluid ounces), and is occasionally used in recipes; in older recipes, cup may mean "coffee cup". It is also used in the US to specify coffeemaker sizes (what can be referred to as a Tasse à café). A "12-cup" US coffeemaker makes 57.6 US customary fluid ounces of coffee, which is equal to 6.8 metric cups of coffee.
Canadian cup
[edit]Canada now usually employs the metric cup of 250 ml, but its conventional cup was somewhat smaller than both American and imperial units.[8]
1 Canadian cup = 8 imperial fluid ounces = 1/20 imperial gallon = 227.3045 ml
1 Canadian tablespoon = 1⁄2 imperial fluid ounce (14.2065 ml)
1 Canadian teaspoon = 1⁄6 imperial fluid ounce (4.7355 ml)
United Kingdom
[edit]Traditionally, in the United Kingdom, there are three measurement units for cooking bearing names with the word, ‘cup’.[9] The first one is the breakfast cup, which is named after a cup for drinking tea or coffee while eating breakfast: 1 breakfast cup is 8 imperial fluid ounces.[10][11] The second one is the teacup, which is named after a typical teacup: 1 teacup is 5 imperial fluid ounces.[12] The third one is the coffee cup, which is named after a small cup for the after‑dinner coffee: 1 coffee cup is 21⁄2 imperial fluid ounces.[13]
| 1 breakfast cup | = | 13⁄5 | teacups |
| = | 31⁄5 | coffee cups | |
| = | 8 | imperial fluid ounces | |
| = | 2⁄5 | imperial pint | |
| = | 1⁄5 | imperial quart | |
| = | 1⁄20 | imperial gallon | |
| = | 16 | UK tablespoons | |
| = | 64 | UK teaspoons | |
| ≈ | 0·96 | US customary cup | |
| ≈ | 7·69 | US customary fluid ounces | |
| ≈ | 227·3 | millilitres |
| 1 teacup | = | 5⁄8 | breakfast cup |
| = | 2 | coffee cups | |
| = | 5 | imperial fluid ounces | |
| = | 1⁄4 | imperial pint | |
| = | 1⁄8 | imperial quart | |
| = | 1⁄32 | imperial gallon | |
| = | 10 | UK tablespoons | |
| = | 40 | UK teaspoons | |
| ≈ | 3⁄5 | US customary cup | |
| ≈ | 44⁄5 | US customary fluid ounces | |
| ≈ | 142·07 | millilitres |
| 1 coffee cup | = | 5⁄16 | breakfast cup |
| = | 1⁄2 | teacup | |
| = | 21⁄2 | imperial fluid ounces | |
| = | 1⁄8 | imperial pint | |
| = | 1⁄16 | imperial quart | |
| = | 1⁄64 | imperial gallon | |
| = | 5 | UK tablespoons | |
| = | 20 | UK teaspoons | |
| ≈ | 0·3 | US customary cup | |
| ≈ | 22⁄5 | US customary fluid ounces | |
| ≈ | 71·03 | millilitres |
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. (March 2024) |
In the United Kingdom, the standard cup was set[by whom?] at 10 imperial fluid ounces,[citation needed] or half an imperial pint. The cup was rarely used in practice, as historically most kitchens tended to be equipped with scales, and ingredients were measured by weight, rather than volume.[14] A related measure, the gill (5 fluid ounces, or half an imperial cup), was commonly used in older cookbooks for liquids, and may still be used (in fractions of 1⁄4, 1⁄5, and 1⁄6) for spirits.
| 1 imperial cup | = | 10 | imperial fluid ounces |
| = | 16 | imperial tablespoons | |
| = | 48 | imperial teaspoons | |
| ≈ | 284.131 | millilitres | |
| ≈ | 9.6076 | US customary fluid ounces |
International
[edit]Similar units in other languages and cultures are sometimes translated "cup", usually with various values around 1⁄5 to 1⁄4 of a litre.
Latin American cup
[edit]In Latin America, the amount of a "cup" (Spanish: taza) varies from country to country, using a cup of 200 ml, 250 ml, and the US legal or customary amount.
Japanese cup
[edit]The traditional Japanese unit equated with a "cup" size is the gō, legally equated with 2401/13310 litres (≈180.4 ml) in 1891, and is still used for reckoning amounts of rice and sake. The Japanese later defined a "cup" as 200 ml.
| 1 Japanese cup | = | 200 | millilitres |
| ≈ | 7.04 | imperial fluid ounces | |
| ≈ | 6.76 | US customary fluid ounces |
Russian cup
[edit]The traditional Russian measurement system included two cup sizes, one of which, the "charka" (cup proper), was usually used for alcoholic drinks and measured 123 ml (4.2 US fl oz; 4.3 imp fl oz), while another, "stakan" ("glass") was twice as big at 246 ml (8.3 US fl oz; 8.7 imp fl oz) and used for other liquids.
Since metrication, the charka was informally redefined as 100 ml, acquiring a new name of "stopka" (related to the traditional Russian measurement unit "stopa"[citation needed]), while there are currently two widely used glass sizes of 250 and 200 ml.
Dutch cup
[edit]In The Netherlands, traditionally a "cup" (Dutch: kopje) amounts to 150 ml. However, in modern recipes the US legal cup of 240 ml is more commonly used.
Dry measure
[edit]In Europe, recipes normally weigh non-liquid ingredients in grams rather than measuring volume. For example, where an American 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". A precise conversion between the two measures takes into account the density of the ingredients, and some recipes specify both weight and volume to facilitate this conversion. Many European measuring cups have markings that indicate the weight of common ingredients for a given volume.
| Ingredient | Density g/ml[a] |
Metric cup | Imperial cup | US customary cup | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| g | oz | g | oz | g | oz | ||
| water[15] | 1[b] | 249–250 | 8.8 | 283–284 | 10 | 236.5882 | 8.3[c] |
| granulated sugar | 0.8[18] | 200 | 7.0 | 230 | 8.0 | 190 | 6.7 |
| wheat flour | 0.5–0.6[18] | 120–150 | 4.4–5.3 | 140–170 | 5.0–6.0 | 120–140 | 4.2–5.0 |
| table salt | 1.2[18] | 300 | 10.6 | 340 | 12.0 | 280 | 10.0 |
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ 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 chance 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 US fluid ounce is slightly larger.
- 1 g/ml ≈ 1.043 av oz/US fl oz.
- ^ 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.[16][17]
- ^ Since an imperial cup of water weighs approximately 10 avoirdupois ounces and five imperial cups are approximately equal to six US cups, one US cup of water weighs approximately 81⁄3 avoirdupois ounces.
References
[edit]- ^ (21 CFR 101.9 (b) (5) (viii)
- ^ US Government Printing Office—Electronic Code of Federal Regulations Archived 2009-08-13 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ U.S. Food and Drug Administration—Guidelines for Determining Metric Equivalents of Household Measures
- ^ "US Legal Cup Measures". 16 November 2020. Archived from the original on 19 November 2020. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
- ^ "Black and Decker Replacement Carafe". Archived from the original on 2016-12-31. Retrieved 2016-12-30.
- ^ "Standard Australian Cooking Measurements". Retrieved 2014-09-24.
- ^ "coherent units". BIPM. Retrieved 2014-05-26.
- ^ "How Many Tablespoons in a Cup - Easy Conversions". First Health Mag. 2016-04-28. Retrieved 2016-05-08.
- ^ Measuring Cups
- ^ ‘Consuming Interest’, Elizabeth David, The Spectator, 15th March, 1963
- ^ ‘Tea Making, My Experiments [1859]’, chapter XVII, page 456, volume IIIB, The Life, Letters and Labours of Francis Galton (1930)
- ^ ‘Consuming Interest’, Elizabeth David, The Spectator, 15th March, 1963
- ^ ‘Consuming Interest’, Elizabeth David, The Spectator, 15th March, 1963
- ^ Stobart, Tom (1981).The Cook's Encyclopedia, Harper & Row, p.524
- ^ 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).
- ^ Water density calculator
- ^ Ma, Allen (2007). Elert, Glenn (ed.). "Density of water". The Physics Factbook. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
- ^ 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.