England badge English weights and measures Last edit: 07/Dec/2014
Cooking measures: 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. 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.

NOTE: The Imperial fluid ounce is not quite the same as the US fluid ounce, but the difference is neglible.

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
Treacle/syrup 12 ounces 1 cup
Sugar 1 ounce 2 tablespoons
Sugar 1 pound 2 cups


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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