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Pounds to cups, ounces to tablespoons
It is important to remember that British cooking measures are different to American
cooking measures. In both systems a basic measure is the cup, which is half
a pint. But as the pint is different in the two countries, so is the cup -
remember, there are 16 fluid ounces to the pint in the US, and 20 in the UK.
The two fuild ounces are, however, close enough to make no difference in practice.
To make things more interesting, it would appear that in the US it is normal to
use 'cup' measures for what in the UK would be weighed in ounces etc. To convert
properly between the two implies a knowledge of the density of the ingredient
being measured. My advice is to measure according to the recipe, remembering
that the size of the cup is different.
Imperial and American cooking measures
| Food/ingredient
| UK
| US
|
| Butter/margarine etc.
| 1 ounce
| 2 tablespoons
|
| Butter/margarine etc.
| 1 pound
| 2 cups
|
| Flour
| 1 pound
| 4 cups
|
| Flour
| 1 ounce
| 1/4 of a cup
|
| Treacle/syrup
| 1 ounce
| 1 tablespoon
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| Treacle/syrup
| 12 ounces
| 1 cup
|
| Sugar
| 1 ounce
| 2 tablespoons
|
| Sugar
| 1 pound
| 2 cups
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NB: In the UK, the tablespoon is now defined as 18ml., and the teaspoon as 5ml. However,
if you look at commercially available measures, the tablespoon is shown as equivalent to 15ml., with the
teaspoon as 5ml. However, in reality there are 4 teaspoons to the tablespoon!
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