How big is a cup exactly?

[Folloy]

When following cooking instructions and they say a cup of something, How big is a cup exactly?

[holloway]

I don't think it matters just as long as you use the same cup for all of the different ingredients. It will all balance out. Jamie Oliver does this a lot. Good luck.

[Azalea]

8 fluid ounces. You can easily buy a set of measuring cups for this. But I suggest buying a Tala Cook's Measure, they are invaluable. Have used one for years for different recipes. Available via Ocado and Amazon.

[Siduhe]

If it's a US recipe - 240ml.

https://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/resources/conversion-tables/us-cups-conversion-table/

[LondonMix]

8 fluid oz and all of the equivalent of that in ml as has already been provided.

[PeckhamRose]

You can buy a set of cups which include the table spoon tea spoons half tea- and table spoons, half a cup third cup quarter cup at places like Lakeland, and ebay. I use these measurements a lot. Go get 'em!

[Ellem86]

My understanding is that cup measurements relate to volume so there will be different conversions for certain liquids and dry ingredients. For example, a cup of water is 250ml but a cup of flour is 150g.

[Azalea]

Ellem86 Wrote:

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> My understanding is that cup measurements relate

> to volume so there will be different conversions

> for certain liquids and dry ingredients. For

> example, a cup of water is 250ml but a cup of

> flour is 150g.

Not if you are following an American recipe. Buy the Tala measure.

[Baggs]

Urm, a cup measurement will only really be used in an american recipe, and yes a cup will contain different weights of different ingredients. It's a pretty potty way of measuring things accurately. The Tala measure has one unchanging line for american cup measurements - you might as well just use a cup. Tala measuring cup is useful for quick measuring of different ingredients that DON'T use an american cup system.

[LondonMix]

Its not batty. Its a way to measure both liquids and solids with one system and without the need to weigh things. A cup size is a container that would hold 8 fluid oz. If a recipe asks for a half a cup of walnuts and a cup of milk you can make the entire thing without scales which Americans don't need to use nearly as much as over here.

[Pickle]

Not just American recipes. All of my NZ and Australian cookbooks use the cup measurement. Farmers on Lordship Lane stock cup measures, sets of teaspoons/tablespoons etc.

[Baggs]

It is not a batty way of measuring things, but it is a potty way of measuring things *accurately*. A cup of chopped walnuts varies hugely to a cup of walnuts, chopped. It can make a difference to a recipe.

With cheap electric Tare scales so readily available and so quick to use I find cups rather unnecessary, but then again this all goes out the window if using imperial measurements.

Using a baker's percentage method - or scalable metric ratios - allow you to scale recipes up and down so much more easily than with either imperial or cup.

All that said - get a cup measure, and use it when needed in a recipe. As far as I remember the cheap white plastic cups (that might get filled with orange squash on sports day) are 240ml, the size of an american cup - if you can't find a fancy metal one.

[HonaloochieB]

I think it's more of 'mug' measurement, you know the Spiderman one at the back of the cupboard. Smallish and you'd have to rinse it out before loading it up with dry goods for any civilized orm of cooking.

It'll be fine.

[Earl Aelfheah]

It's batty. Who doesn't have scales in their kitchen.

[Jeremy]

American cake recipes always seem to go something like:

1 cup yellow cake mix

1/2 cup butter

1 egg

[LondonMix]

Agreed though butter tends to be measured in tablespoons. In general though volume measurements- cups, teaspoons and tablespoons rather than weight measurements are used in US recipes - particularly older ones. Its a much more traditional way of cooking. Back in the day, no one would have had scales.

Jeremy Wrote:

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> American cake recipes always seem to go something

> like:

>

> 1 cup yellow cake mix

> 1/2 cup butter

> 1 egg

[Otta]

HonaloochieB Wrote:

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> I think it's more of 'mug' measurement, you know

> the Spiderman one at the back of the cupboard.

> Smallish and you'd have to rinse it out before

> loading it up with dry goods for any civilized orm

> of cooking.

> It'll be fine.

My spiderman mug (which came with an easter egg in it some 20 years ago) has followed my throughout my working life, and is currently in the bottom drawer of my desk, and gets used regularly. I shall be a sad man when that mug is no more.

[Mustard]

rahrahrah Wrote:

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> It's batty. Who doesn't have scales in their

> kitchen.

Lots and lots of people living in the USA because many of their recipes use cups. Some recipe sites, like Smitten Kitchen, now supply weight measures.

[civilservant]

measuring in cups - so long as the same cup is used throughout - is no problem at all, and preferable to having to weigh everything out. if the recipe is properly written (and tested!) to ensure internal consistency, the size of the cup doesn't matter at all

I note that a lot of the responders say 'buy this' and 'buy that' - good to see the level of disposable income in Dulwich has kept up! but how sustainable is that? and exactly HOW precise do ingredient measurement need to be? will one's cakes really suffer if you're +/- 10gm out?

re. "cupful of chopped walnuts" v. "cupful of walnuts, chopped" - that's a poorly written recipe if it confuses the two, not your own fault if you can't distinguish between the two

[Michael Palaeologus]

Huh?

The size of the cup matters as a "cup" is a specific measurement of volume used by the Yanks, its not a reference to a random receptacle.

Whether its 240ml or 8oz a cup, people will have purchased a measuring jug or scales in metric and/or imperial and can either work it out of go on Amazon and buy a Cup measuring scoop for not very much.

[civilservant]

a US 'cup' can be defined for nutritional purposes as 240ml, but that's a retro-fitted definition to what started out as a rough and ready indication of relative volumes within a recipe. as any cook kno, all recipes are about relative proportions, and generous margins of error are permitted

i don't think anyone has felt the need to codify the size of a 'handful' or a 'tablespoonful', other popular measures in recipes (but see this link http://www.accuracyproject.org/measurements.html) , although I have recently seen nutritionist-type guidance about what constitutes a 'portion' (as in '5 portions a day)

ETA useful link for measurement purists