As you may have already guessed, I am based in the UK.
I have found a lot of differences between UK and US ingredients, names, and measurements which may be confusing to my US readers when I post a recipe in metric.
To set this straight, I have created a printable infographic chart/guide highlighting…
- Liquid and volume measurements for teaspoons, tablespoons and cups to fluid millilitres (ml)
- Oven temperature conversion from gas marks to Celsius (°C) and Fahrenheit (°F)
- Specific ingredients from grams (g) to cups:
- butter,
- sugar – white granulated, caster (superfine), brown and icing (powdered/confectioners’) sugar,
- flour – plain (all-purpose) and self-raising (self-rising),
- raisins, sultanas and currants,
- ground almonds,
- syrups,
- uncooked rice.
- And the common UK-US name differences for ingredients and tools.
UK-US Conversion Chart Printable
NOTE: If using on your own site, please give attribution.
Looking for conversion charts on the following?
- Oven temperature guide (°C to °F and Gas Marks),
- Cake tin batter sizes – round/square,
- Solids, Liquids, Grams (g), and Ounces (oz) conversion,
- Marzipan (almond paste), rolled fondant/sugarpaste size rolling guide,
- Cake baking tin size to temperature and baking time chart,
- Upscaling and downscaling cake recipe/batter quantities.
All of the above is covered on my other conversion guide.
If you cannot find what you are looking for, please do not hesitate to drop me an email.
SO GLAD FOR YOUR INGREDIENT TRANSLATIONS! i’ve often wondered about caster sugar in uk recipes, but now i find i was correct. Would i have to make powdered sugar any finer to match caster sugar? MISCHIEF
No, powdered sugar isn’t caster sugar. Caster sugar is like granulated but the sugar crystals in caster sugar are finer than that of granulated. I hear it’s labeled as superfine sugar in the US but isn’t the same thing as powdered sugar. Hope that helps?
If you want “caster” sugar (superfine in the U.S.) but don’t want to pay the price for “Baker’s Sugar” you can put your regular sugar in a food processor and spin it until it is very fine. The Baker’s Sugar is a higher quality sugar – I use it in my baking and also to make my hummingbird nectar. 1 cup to 4 cups boiling water.
This is awesome! I’m in the US and have some readers in the UK. I’m linking to this page from my blog!!
This is awesome! I’m in the US and have some readers in the UK. I’m linking to this page from my blog!!
This is a great help, Lisa.
Thanks!
SInea
what is 300g Rhubarb 500g Rhubarb for the U.S.A.
Hi Joyce,
It’s so hard to convert weight into volume. For example, converting 1 cup (volume) of granulated sugar to grams (weight) is 200g, but 1 cup of feathers would not be the same, make sense?
It will also depend on on how you chop it too. If you chop rhubarb chopped into smaller chunks you will be able to get more into the cup than that of bigger chunks. This is the main reason why we weigh our ingredients in the UK so they’re always perfectly accurate. 🙂
However, I googled this for you and it states that 300g of rhubarb is 2 cups. So 500g will be approx. 3 and just slightly over 1/4 cups. Or the US ounce weights are… 300g = 10.6 oz, and 500g is 17.6 oz.
Hope that helps? If you need any further help, don’t hesitate to email me. Thanks for stopping by.
I am a new American Expat living in the UK. This is so helpful. I have favorite recipes from home that I struggle to convert. And i don’t know what some ingredients are in UK recipes. I’m trying to convert to metric but it’s not easy. Thanks for this!
I’m glad you’re finding the chart helpful, Kimberly. I know it must be a struggle for you right now with the culture and ingredient differences, so if you have any questions about any ingredients or anything not listed here, feel free to contact me and I’ll do my best to help.
I can work in both cups (volume) and weight. They sell the measuring cups here too should you need them. However, if I were you, and you still have recipes that work in cup measurements, I’d stick with using the cups for them. It’s a big hassle to convert everything and if I didn’t blog my recipes, I wouldn’t bother to convert. Saying that, weight measurements are more accurate (us Brits are all for perfection, eh?) so for those I’d get a scale.
You can enjoy the best of both worlds here. Have fun!
What are raisins here in usa
I am a big fan of The Great British Baking Show shown here in the US and I ordered cookbooks by Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood. They, of course, have UK measurements and oven settings. After looking at several sites for conversion to US equivalents, I was more confused than ever! Then I found your site. Thank you SO MUCH for an easy to understand, PRINTABLE chart that will allow me to try my hand at some British Baking!!
You’re very welcome, Tricia. I’m working on individual ingredient conversions (which is taking a while to complete because of the massive amount of ingredients!)
I guess you’ll be sad to hear that The Great British Bake Off is no more. The show was purchased by a different channel here in the UK, and BBC creating another. So Paul and Mary (and presenters) have parted ways sadly. Enjoy your recipe books, happy baking.
What do they mean (I watch the British Bake Off too) when they mean “150 fan”? I understand it’s a temperature, but does ‘fan’ refer to a setting on the oven that us Americans don’t have? I’ve been wondering if there’s a way to compensate for that setting, but if ovens are built differently here than there, than probably not.
Thanks for doing this conversion though! very helpful 🙂
I’m sure I answered this via email, but in case anyone has the same question, I will answer below.
In England we have gas ovens, and electric ovens. Electric ovens can have a fan at the back that is supposed to make the whole oven a consistent temperature throughout. So, no cold spots at the bottom or hot spots at the top.
When they say 150 fan, they mean 150 degrees C (not F) on a fan oven. I hope that helps.
In the US the “fan” is for the convection bake setting if you have a convection oven.
Thanks for sharing this! I do have a question, how would these ingredients be converted to US measurements?
750g carrots, peeled and grated
410g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
150ml pot natural yogurt
Thanks!
Hi
I have picked up an American recipe and have used ur convertion table before and found it a great help so thank you for that.
Although this new recipe has got me a little confused as it has the letter ‘T’ next to a measurement of milk all the others are in cups or tsp can you help me by letting me know what measurement it stands for please x
Hi Nikki, Some US Recipes have a capital T for tablespoon and a lowercase t for teaspoon. I hope that helps?
Dear lisa,
I am confused with the weigth of 1 tsp baking power between US and UK.
Can you suggest me how many grams they are? That can be converted for US and UK recipes.
Hi. There is no difference in weight between a US teaspoon and a UK teaspoon.
However, it is easier to just measure these using a teaspoon instead of weight as different ingredients and liquids wildly vary in weight.
I hope that helps.
Can someone please tell me what is “corn flour” in a Mary Berry recipe? Thanks so much!
You may know it better as cornstarch, Crystle.
I hope that helps.
Hi Lisa,
You have saved my life……. I was so delighted to come across your website when converting US, in to UK measurements. etc. It is so difficult to come across someone from England putting stuff on line, as its all American.
I have now printed it all off, and have attached it to a book, for future reference.
Like you in more ways than one, I have Psoriasis arthritis amongst other thing,s and have had to give up work. I always love baking cakes, and have done so for many years, mainly for my family. I have decided in the new year to take it up more as a hobby, and start decorating cakes for family and friends, and see where it leads in the future.
Thank you once again.
Paula 🙂
Hi there! Just wanted to check something I was guessing; is strong flour the same as US Bread Flour? Thanks!
Hi Aubrey. Yes, strong flour and bread flour are interchangeable.
Please North America just get with the rest of the world and realise that a tablespoon of butter is way harder and less accurate to measure than 15g of butter . A cup of parsley could be anything from 10-50g depending on how it is cut and packed. Whyyyyyyyy??????? When I’m doing a recipe that requires fairly exact measurements, I stick my bowl on my electronic scales and zero after each ingredient is added. Apart from accuracy I have way less cleaning up as I’m not getting cups and tablespoons covered in oils, butter etc.
Make your life easier and more accurate and stop using volume for dry ingredients – rant over!
I weigh my ingredients too, Stuart. But I guess it’s each to their own and what people have been brought up to use. I’m from England and grew up weighing ingredients as it’s the norm here.
You can’t get more accurate than weight. Especially for things that vary in size, like chopped ingredients. If you chop smaller, you can pack more in the cup, so it’s very difficult to provide conversions based on whether people are packing more or less in a cup – when baking is an accurate science.
Wonderful chart! Thank you so much!!
What is single milk and double milk ? My guess is heavy whipping cream not sure tho.
Hi Kim. I’m guessing you mean single and double cream and not milk, right? We have skimmed milk (least fat content), semi-skimmed milk (around 2% fat), and whole milk (full fat).
Regarding cream types, the US conversion of single cream is half and half, and double cream is heavy cream. We also get whipping cream here too, which has a lower fat content than double/heavy cream.
I hope that helps? Happy baking.
Hi please can you tell me what a cup of powdered milk is in grams?
Many thanks
Hi Wendy, there are 115g in 1 cup of powdered milk. I hope that helps?
Hi Lisa, thats great thank you very much for your help.
Sorry for replying like this but it wouldn’t let me reply back on your answer.
Hi! I’m trying to make a UK macron recipe but I’m completely clueless! Is there anyway you could help me with the ingredients conversion to US cups?
205 g icing sugar (I presume this is confectioners sugar)
190 g ground almonds (is this almond flour?)
144 g egg whites (I’ve never measured eggs normally in the US it’s # of whole eggs)
190 g caster sugar (I’ve never heard of this?)
60 ml of water
165 degrees Celsius for 12 minutes (we use farenheight?)
Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated as I keep finding conflicting conversion amounts online. Thank you so much !
Hi Erin. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to figure out conversations for other people’s recipes. I get so many requests so I hope you can understand.
I will however, say that it is best to weigh out ingredients for macarons as they need very precise measurements to work out well.
Icing sugar = powdered/confectioners’ sugar,
Ground almonds = almond flour,
Caster sugar = superfine sugar (like granulated but finer, but not powdered),
60ml water = ¼ cup,
165°C = 330°F.
Hope that helps. Happy baking. 🙂
Thank you so much! I I completely understand and I’m grateful for the info you provided!