Bulk Density Chart for converting weights to volume measures

I found this looking for ways to help convert a recipe on the Shopping and Cooking forum:

Resource: Bulk Density Chart at PowerAndBulk.com

Remember "a pint a pound the world around"? Well, that's for water. Water is 1 pound per pint, and 1 gram per cubic centimer (cm³ or cc or milliliter or ml -- all the same measurement). So for granulated sugar, .70g/cc, you'd want to use 1.43 pints per when the recipe calls for a pound, or fluid ounces for ounces of weight, or, milliliters when grams are called for. Use the g/cc measurement, and divide it into 1 (in this case 1/.70) to get the volume.

Some shortcuts: 15ml is a tablespoon, 5ml a teaspoon, a fluid ounce is 28ml but 30 is usually close enough.

For flour for baking, weight is always preferred over volumetric measures because flour can vary greatly in density depending on the humidity, whether it's been sifted, packed into the measuring cup, etc.

I knew there was a spot for this! I just found this handy chart, which tells you how many cups are in a pound of various different common household ingredients. I haven't had a chance to test it yet, so YMMV.

Mhays wrote:I knew there was a spot for this! I just found this handy chart, which tells you how many cups are in a pound of various different common household ingredients. I haven't had a chance to test it yet, so YMMV.

Thanks -- nice chart. One of my cooking pet peeves has been how much cheese is 1/2C shredded -- on a microplane, 1/2 cup will weigh a small fraction of what's done with a wide box grater in the same volume. It seems like too many recipes expect you to buy the stuff pre-shredded in a bag (eeeewww).

If I go with 4C/lb as a standard (as that chart says), I at least have a baseline for recipes.

A friend contacted about a reliable way to convert Australian recipe measurements for American cooks:

How to convert American recipes to Australian

Metric -> (Australian) cup -> Imperial measurements