How to Convert Ingredients for Your Favorite Recipes
Let’s face it, there are many times you’re prepping your ingredients to make a meal and realize you have the ingredients you need, but they are not in the format required by the recipe. For example, the recipe may need 1½ pounds of cooked spinach, but they don’t tell you how much raw spinach you need to start with to get to the cooked amount.
Or how about eggs? They come in all sorts of sizes and in many recipes, it doesn’t matter if you use a medium-sized egg versus a jumbo egg except when it comes to baking where you need exact ingredient amounts or face all sorts of issues.
I much prefer when a recipe says to use 1 medium yellow onion instead of 1 cup chopped, but that’s not usually the case. Most recipes I see give you the amounts in cups, tablespoons, and weight but this chart should help with these decisions.
Did you know it takes about 3 medium-sized bananas to produce 1 cup of mashed bananas? Or 1 pound of cheese to produce 4 cups of grated cheese?
Let’s Get Started
I’m not sure of the best way to arrange these ingredients. I started out thinking by importance, but that is so subjective, so I opted for a to z. I’ll be adding to this list as I find new conversions, but this is a great start.
Be sure to check out some of my other important kitchen conversions.
| INGREDIENT | CONVERSION |
| 1 pound almonds unshelled | 1½ cups whole-shelled almonds or 6 ounces |
| 1 pound shelled almonds | 3 cups or 3⅓ cups chopped almonds |
| 1 cup slivered almonds | 4 ounces of almonds |
| 1½ cups almond flour | ¾ cup all-purpose flour |
| 1 medium apple | 1⅓ cup apple slices or ¾ cup grated |
| 1 large apple | 2 cups apple slices or 1¼ cups grated |
| 1 pound fresh asparagus | 16 to 20 spears |
| 1 pound fresh asparagus | 3 cups trimmed or 2½ cups cooked |
| 8 slices cooked bacon | ½ cup crumbled |
| 1 medium banana | ⅔ cups sliced |
| 2 medium bananas | 1 cup diced bananas |
| 3 medium bananas | 1 cup mashed banana |
| 1 pound dried bananas | 4½ cups sliced |
| 1 bunch of basil | 2.5 ounces on average |
| 1 bunch of basil | 1 cup of packed basil leaves |
| 1 bunch of basil | 1 cup of chopped basil leaves |
| 1 cup soft bread crumbs | 3 slices bread |
| 1 stick of butter | 4 ounces or 1/2 cup |
| 1 stick of butter | ¼ pound or 8 tablespoons |
| 1 tablespoon butter | ½ ounce of butter |
| 1 lb. raw cabbage | 4 cups shredded |
| 1 pound hard cheese | 4 cups grated cheese |
| 1 pound cottage cheese | 2 cups cottage cheese |
| 1 pound American cheese | 20 slices |
| 1 pound cherries | 2½ cups pitted cherries |
| ¾ lb. boneless chicken breasts | yields 2 cups cubed cooked chicken |
| 4 ounces raw chicken | yields 3 ounces cooked chicken |
| 2 cups chocolate chips | 12 ounces chocolate chips |
| 2 medium ears of corn | 1 cup kernels |
| 1 cup whipping cream | 2 cups whipped |
| 1 pint pitted dates | 6 cups chopped |
| 1 lb. dates with pits | 1½ cups chopped |
| 1 small egg | 1¼ ounces per egg or 2½ tablespoons |
| 1 medium egg | 1½ ounces per egg or 3 tablespoons |
| 1 large egg | 1.625 ounces per egg or 3¼ tablespoons |
| 1 extra large egg | 2 ounces per egg or 4 tablespoons |
| 1 jumbo egg | 2¼ ounces per egg or 4½ tablespoons |
| 1 cup egg whites | 8 – 10 large egg whites |
| 1 cup egg yolks | 12 – 14 large egg yolks |
| 1 tablespoon fresh herbs | 1 teaspoon dried herbs |
| 1 pound lemons | 4 to 5 lemons |
| 1 lemon | 2 tablespoons lemon juice |
| 1 lemon | 1 tablespoon lemon zest |
| 1 lemon | 2 tablespoons bottled lemon juice |
| 1 medium onion | ¾ cup chopped onion |
| 1 pound onions | 3 cups chopped onion |
| 1 cup pasta uncooked | 2⅔ cups cooked pasta |
| 1 pound peas in a pod | 1 cup shelled peas |
| 1 medium bell pepper | 1 cup chopped |
| 1 cup white rice uncooked | 3 cups cooked |
| 1 pound fresh spinach | 1½ cups cooked |
| 1 pound brown sugar | 2⅔ cups |
| 1 pound tomatoes | 1½ cups chopped |
5 Responses
This is why I generally prefer recipes using weights rather than volumes or pieces, especially for baking.
It doesn’t convert anything measured in grams. I need to know the Equivalent of 340g to cups. Do you have another site that has these charts?
Hi BJ, I do not but google will make those conversions for you. I’ll try to add grams to cups to the chart soon.
Hi, these are an awesome help to abeginner like me! Thank you.
Any chance of making them printable please?
Hello, this is very helpful. I decided to explore your site because I love the title, Reluctant Gourmet. (One of my favorite shows growing up was The Frugal Gourmet. )
Also, I did not know this: except when it comes to baking, where you need exact ingredients amounts or face all sorts of issues.
So thank you for this information, I will bookmark it and now I will explore your site. Cheers!