Hmm. Well… you know how much you weigh, so how many cups are you? That’s kind of the same question.
Some things will convert fairly easily (5g of water = 5mL of water, 1L of water = 4 cups of water, etc.), but weight to volume conversions are not generally very accurate. Try looking online for conversion charts. Just remember that all ingredients have different densities (that old “pound of feathers vs. pound of lead” thing), making weight the more accurate way to measure most ingredients.
When you email me and ask me to convert an entire recipe into volume measurements for you, what you’re asking me to do is to go get out all the ingredients, weigh them out, transfer them to a volume measurement, note down that measurement for that ingredient—and then do that for every single ingredient in the recipe. I’m sorry, but I really don’t want to do that! You are basically asking me to re-develop the entire recipe, and I’d rather develop new ones. Not only is it a ton of work, but the results aren’t going to be terribly accurate, especially when we’re dealing with something solid, like chunks of beeswax or cocoa butter (USA / Canada). If my chunks are a different size than yours, our measurements are not going to be the same.
In the end, I’d really recommend getting a scale (~$15) and going by weight, it’s awesome! Less dishes, too 🙂 Here’s my guide on what to look for when buying a scale, and here’s a quick how-to video to get you started working in weights!
Posted in: Measurements