U. S. Weights & Measures

U.S. CUSTOMARY UNITS AND THEIR EQUIVALENTS

It is generally not a good idea to scale a recipe up or down by more than 3 or 4 times. All measurements presented on this page are in U.S. units.

LIQUID MEASUREMENTS

In the United States, liquid measurement is not only used for liquids such as water and milk, it is also used when measuring other ingredients such as flour, sugar, shortening, butter, and spices.

	teaspoon	tablespoon	fluid ounce	gill	cup	pint	quart	gallon
1 teaspoon =	1	1/3	1/6	1/24	- - -	- - -	- - -	- - -
1 tablespoon =	3	1	1/2	1/8	1/16	- - -	- - -	- - -
1 fluid ounce =	6	2	1	1/4	1/8	1/16	- - -	- - -
1 gill =	24	8	4	1	1/2	1/4	1/8	- - -
1 cup =	48	16	8	2	1	1/2	1/4	1/16
1 pint =	96	32	16	4	2	1	1/2	1/8
1 quart =	192	64	32	8	4	2	1	1/4
1 gallon =	768	256	128	32	16	8	4	1
1 firkin =	6912	2304	1152	288	144	72	36	9
1 hogshead =	48384	16128	8064	2016	1008	504	252	63

MISCELLANEOUS	EQUIVALENT
1 pinch	1/8 teaspoon or less
1 teaspoon	60 drops

DRY MEASUREMENTS

Dry measurements are not typically used in U.S. recipes; dry measurements are used mainly for measuring fresh produce (e.g. berries are sold by the quart, apples by the bushel, or peck). Do not confuse dry measure with liquid measure, because they are not the same.

	Pint	Quart	Gallon	Peck	Bushel	Cubic Feet
Pint	1	1/2	1/8	1/16	1/64	0.019445
Quart	2	1	1/4	1/8	1/32	0.03889
Gallon	8	4	1	1/2	1/8	0.15556
Peck	16	8	2	1	1/4	0.31111
Bushel	64	32	8	4	1	1.2445
Cubic Feet	51.428	25.714	6.4285	3.2143	0.80356	1

LIQUID MEASUREMENTS vs. DRY MEASUREMENT

The table below shows the differences between dry measurement and liquid measurement.

DRY UNIT	LIQUID UNIT
1 pint, dry =	1.1636 pints, liquid
1 quart, dry =	1.1636 quarts, liquid
1 gallon, dry =	1.1636 gallons, liquid

WEIGHT

The two most commonly used units of weight (or mass) measurement for cooking in the U.S. are the ounce and the pound. Do not confuse the ounce of weight with the fluid ounce, because they are not the same; there is no standard conversion between weight and volume unless you know the density of the ingredient. To make matters worse, there are different kinds of weight measurement; Avoirdupois weight, Troy weight, and Apothecaries weight. In the U.S., when someone refers to pounds and ounces of weight (especially in cooking) they are usually referring to Avoirdupois weight.

Basic Cooking Rule:

16 ounces =

1 pound

LENGTH

Unlike the metric system, where everything is neat and organized in units of ten, the U.S. system of length does not seem to be based on any one number. This table summarizes the different units of length. Although not used in cooking, I have included larger units of length also such as the mile.

	inch	foot	yard
1 inch =	1	1/12	1/36
1 foot =	12	1	1/3
1 yard =	36	3	1
1 mile =	- - -	5280	1760

COUNTING

Many foods are sold in quantities of dozen or gross. Eggs are a good example of something that you buy by the dozen. When refering to more than one dozen or gross, you do not add an "s" to the end; instead, you precede the word by the amount

Usage Examples:

• One dozen eggs
• Three dozen people
• Five gross of pencils

It is also very common to use the phrase "half dozen" to mean six.

1 Dozen =	12
1 Gross =	12 Dozen or 144