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I learned the hard way that not all measuring cups are reliable so I started using a scale. I started googling conversion charts and found a multitude but most having varying answers. For example,

All purpose Flour

King Author states 1 cup= 120g

Another states 1 cup= 140g (not Gold Medal)

My question is, what is the most RELIABLE and ACCURATE conversion chart to use???

Thanks in advance again

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    Sorry to say, the MOST reliable way is to use recipes that are written in weights. Otherwise go back to measuring cups. There is too much variation for flour. Even the same brand is affected by how it is stored, how it is scooped, and additional factors.
    – Damila
    Jan 16 at 5:38
  • Man it's actually bonkers I always thought a measurement was always the same like 1 + 1 = 2. Regardless of what the processing for that particular ingredient is it's still weighs a certain amount....right??? I guess not so much. Thank you so much for your input it's very helpful
    – LadyBlue Robinson
    Jan 16 at 20:45
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    @LadyBlueRobinson have you ever started cutting a largish vegetable for a stew, maybe a head of cauliflower, and suddenly noticed that the bowl that was larger than the whole head is nowhere near enough to hold all the torn-up cauliflower rosettes? The weight of the cauliflower didn't change, but its volume did. The same happens with flour with different milling grades. And then there cooks with different scooping habits, which account for the other major source of variability - to pick three extreme cases, a packed, a levelled and a scooped measure contain different amounts.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Jan 16 at 21:18

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There is no 100% reliable conversion chart for dry ingredients, there are too many variations in the mix, like fineness of grain, varieties, etc. However, that's less of a problem than you may think. I converted to metric using weights a long while back and found the same as you regarding charts, so I just measured it myself using my own 'standard' ingredients. I use 145g for 1 cup of flour, which is different from any chart I've seen.

What I typically do with a new recipe that uses cups or imperial measurements is to measure it out using volume and write it on the recipe in pencil in grams or ml. I then tweak those measurements until they deliver the right result. If a measure is common with a previous recipe, say 1 cup of flour, then I'll use a previous measurement which I'm happy with. This takes a bit of time the first time you do a recipe, but it means a lot of time saved going forward as you won't be constantly referring to charts.

When converting to metric there are a few useful things to remember:

  • Butter in the US is measured in weight, 1 stick of butter is 1/4 pound, which is always 113g (okay, technically it's 113.4 but that .4 doesn't usually matter)
  • 1 ml of water is 1 gram, so you can weigh water and milk, which is much more reliable and faster than looking at lines on a measuring cup. 1 US cup is 237g of water or milk. 1 cup of oil is 216g
  • US and UK volume measurements are different, 1 US pint is less than 1 UK pint, so you need to be aware of where the recipe comes from
  • Most smartphones have a calculator with conversions built in
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  • OMG thank you so much. You get it! I always thought math was universal 🤣. But I'm learning the hard way in cooking... not so much. I I tried a recipe from a British cupcake maker from online. But you can kind of guess how that turned out. I hope you don't mind me printing out your response so that I can keep it in my cookbook for future references
    – LadyBlue Robinson
    Jan 16 at 20:49
  • Anything on this site is public so print away, I'm glad you find it useful!
    – GdD
    Jan 16 at 21:39

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