A Refresher on Measurements

Just in case these details have slipped your mind since junior high school home ec class:

3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon
2 tablespoons = 1 fluid ounce
2 ounces = 1/4 cup
4 ounces = 1/2 cup
8 ounces = 1 cup
2 cups = 1 pint
4 cups = 1 quart
2 pints = 1 quart
4 quarts = 1 gallon

Help! I Use the Metric System!

The problem with being an American cookbook author is that your recipes end up being confusing to the vast majority of the world—namely, the millions of folks out there who don't use quarts, cups, teaspoons, and tablespoons, and whose ovens are calibrated for Celsius rather than Fahrenheit. That most of the world measures dry ingredients by weight rather than volume just adds to the confusion.

Here, for all you nice folks who live in that great big world outside the United States, are some useful measurement conversions. I'm afraid I can't convert measurements of volume to measurements of weight, but I can give you the volumes in liters and the oven temperatures in Celsius. It's good to know that a liter and a quart are so close as to make almost no difference and that for our purposes, we're going to assume they're the same. Be aware that there are two different sorts of ounces in the measurement system used in America—an ounce of weight, and a "fluid ounce," which is measure of volume equal to 2 tablespoons. If a liquid is being measured in ounces, this will always refer to a fluid ounce, rather than an ounce of weight.

Measurements of Volume (approximate)

1 quart = 1 liter
1 cup = 235 milliliters
3/4 cup = 170 milliliters
1/2 cup = 115 milliliters
1/3 cup = 85 milliliters
1/4 cup = 55 milliliters
1 fluid ounce = 28 milliliters
1 tablespoon = 14 milliliters
1 teaspoon = 5 milliliters

Measurements of Weight

1 ounce = 28.4 grams, but in most cases you can round to 25 or 30
1 pound = 454 grams, or about half a kilo

In America, we measure butter both by the pound and by volumetric measurements:

1 pound butter = 2 cups
1 stick butter = 1/4 pound = 1/2 cup = 8 tablespoons = 113 grams
1 cup butter = 226 grams
1 tablespoon butter = 14 grams

Oven Temperatures

225°F = 110°C
250°F = 120°C
275°F = 140°C
300°F = 150°C
325°F = 160°C
350°F = 180°C
375°F = 190°C
400°F = 200°C
425°F = 220°C
450°F = 230°C
475°F = 250°C