Using Weight, Not Volume
I see people confused when a recipe lists ingredients by weight (e.g. 120 g of all purpose flour) instead of volume (e.g. 1 cup of all purpose flour).
Accuracy
Weight is more accurate. 120 grams of flour will weigh 120 grams whether you pack it down or sift it.
Also, some things don’t pack down and make an even cup. Chocolate chips for example — if you measure by volume, are you getting enough chips in your cookies? Don’t tell me this isn’t important — we’re talking about the right amount of chocolate chips here!
Convenience
If I’ve got a bowl of ingredients and need to add 12 grams of sugar to it, I don’t need to dirty a measuring spoon to figure that out. Put the bowl on a scale, add sugar until you have 12 grams. Boom. (By the way, 12 grams is equivalent to 1 tablespoon of sugar.)
Metric
Metric is great. Way more accurate. I’d rather weigh out 14 grams of vanilla extract than try to weigh 1/2 an ounce or 1 tablespoon.
Some Common Items and Their Weights
Here are some common ones. Link to exhaustive list at he bottom.
| Ingredient | Volume | Ounces | Grams |
| All Purpose Flour | 1 cup | 4.25 | 120 |
| Baking Powder | 1 tsp | 4 | |
| Baking Soda | 0.5 tsp | 3 | |
| Butter | 0.5 cups | 4 | 113 |
| Chocolate Chips | 1 cup | 6 | 170 |
| Cocoa (unsweetened) | 0.5 cups | 1.5 | 42 |
| Dried Milk Powder | 0.25 cups | 1.25 | 35 |
| Dried Potato Flakes | 0.5 cups | 1.5 | 43 |
| Garlic (minced) | 2 tbsp | 1 | 28 |
| Honey | 1 tbsp | 0.75 | 21 |
| Milk | 1 cup | 8 | 227 |
| Olive Oil | 0.25 cups | 1.75 | 50 |
| Salt (Kosher) | 1 tbsp | 8 | |
| Salt (table) | 1 tbsp | 18 | |
| Sourdough Starter | 1 cup | 8-8.5 | 227-241 |
| Sugar | 1 cup | 7 | 198 |
| Sugar | 1 tbps | 12 | |
| Vegetable Oil | 1 cup | 7 | 198 |
| Water | 1 cup | 8 | 227 |
| Yeast | 2.25 tsp | 0.25 | 7 |
Full list: Ingredient Weight Chart (King Arthur Flour)
A conversion calculator: Good Calculators.com
Some Conversions
| 1 teaspoon | 8 dashes | 96 drops |
| 1 tablespoon | 3 teaspoons | 24 dashes |
| 1 jigger | 3 tablespoons | 9 teaspoons |
| 1/4 cup | 4 tablespoons | 12 teaspoons |
| 1/2 cup | 8 tablespoons | 24 teaspoons |
| 1 cup | 16 tablespoons | 48 teaspoons |
| 1 pint | 2 cups | 32 tablespoons |
| 1 quart | 2 pints | 4 cups |
| 1/2 gallon | 2 quarts | 4 pints |
| 1 gallon | 4 quarts | 16 cups |