For bakers craving consistency between batches of scones or accuracy when making a tricky cake, weighing ingredients is the key to success. Since not all recipes provide both the volume measurements (cups) and the weight measurements (ounces), here's a handy list of the most common conversions.
These are commonly accepted weight conversions with the emphasis on "common." They're good to use for your own baking consistency in situations where no other weights are given, but if a cookbook or recipe gives its own conversions, you should always default to that. Some cooks and recipe writers may have their own preferred volume and weight conversions.
Dry Ingredients:
All-Purpose Flour: 1 cup = 4 1/2 oz
Bread Flour: 1 cup = 4 1/2 oz
Whole Wheat Flour: 1 cup = 4 1/2 oz
Cake Flour: 1 cup = 4 oz
Pastry Flour: 1 cup = 4 oz
White Granulated Sugar: 1 cup = 7 oz
Brown Sugar: 1 cup = 7 1/2 oz
Powdered Sugar: 1 cup = 4 oz
Chopped Nuts: 1 cup = 4 ozLiquid Ingredients:
Most liquids: 1 cup = 8 oz
Water: 1 cup = 8 oz
Milk: 1 cup = 8 oz
Cream: 1 cup = 8 oz
Yogurt: 1 cup = 8 oz
Sour Cream: 1 cup = 8 oz
Honey: 1 cup = 12 oz
Oil: 1 cup = 7.5 oz
Butter: 1 cup = 8 ozFor those who prefer grams: 1 ounce = about 28 grams
Do you usually weigh ingredients or go by volume?
Related: 5 Basic Baking Tools That I Can't Live Without
It's Reader Request Week at The Kitchn! This post was requested by lazy_lurker.
(Image: PHB.cz (Richard Semik)/Shutterstock)
How to Bake a Potato: Three Easy Methods
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Straw Mat from The ...
10 No-Fail Decor Tricks & Tips for Small Spaces
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
I don't have a scale, so I measure only by volume, but I'm meaning to get one. I'm determined to make real scones and I was burned by the last recipe that tried to translate weight to volume.
Any recommendations for a good scale?
OXO has a good digital one - I found it for about $30.
Is 1 fluid ounces = 28 ml/cc? I dream of the day the whole planet will you the metric system.
And weight for non-liquid ingredients. Volume is just too imprecise.
Make sure you get one that has the abilitity to zero out between adding new ingredients. It makes it so much easier--you put on the bowl, zero it out, add ingredient, zero out, etc. Also get one that is big enough so you can put a large bowl on and still read the scale. I have an Oxo with a pull away readout that I love. Found it at William-Sonoma.
I have and like the Ikea kitchen scale. It's big enough to hold a large bowl, zero's out (=tare) and switches between Imperial and metric.
I will use this backwards! When subbing splenda for sugar (usually only half), I have to use volume since the measure-for-measure splenda is (eerily) light.
I haven't really baked seriously in 7 years (college, plus now I cook more), but I used to love Rose Levy Beranbaum's books since she uses weights
I don't have a scale, so, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
Thank you! Nothing drives me more nuts than when people will fight you to the death on dry measurements. Dry is totally different from liquid! In the land of flour, 1 cup does not equal 8 ounces.
A website where you can convert many foods from one measurement to another:
http://convert-to.com/conversion-of-ingredients-from-cooking-recipes
Thank you for all the recommendations! Got an OXO scale on the way.