white sugar: oz to cups/tablespoons

October 13, 2011 6:32 PM

How many cups is 9 oz white granulated sugar?

I'm in a pinch-- using a recipe with metric units and have no scale. I suppose the best way to measure it out would be the spoon and level method, although there's less of an aeration problem with sugar than flour. Thanks!

posted by ilk to Food & Drink (15 answers total)

One, plus about 3 tablespoons.
posted by jon1270 at 6:35 PM on October 13, 2011

9 US fluid ounces = 1.12500 US cups
More about calculator.

Unless this is a science experiment, you don't need to be exact down to the last grain of sugar.
posted by tumid dahlia at 6:36 PM on October 13, 2011

I doubt your recipe is that exacting. Throw a heaping cup in there and you're fine.

Google says it's 1.125 cups.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:36 PM on October 13, 2011

And if it is a science experiment it sounds like a delicious one.
posted by tumid dahlia at 6:37 PM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

This was maybe the 2nd answer when I searched for how much a cup of sugar weighs.
posted by echo0720 at 6:39 PM on October 13, 2011

Best answer: No, no, no. Fluid ounces and mass ounces are not the same. If his complaint is that it's metric units and he doesn't have a *scale,* he's talking about the weight kind. Yes, 8 fluid ounces = 1 cup, so 9 fluid ounces is indeed a bit more than a cup. But 9 fluid ounces (a volume unit) is only the same as 9 ounces (of mass) if we're talking about water, and even then, only approximately.

Sugar, as it happens, is quite a bit denser. Wolfram Alpha says it's .836 cups, or about more than 13 tablespoons. And it's actually considering the fact that it's sugar, which is dense.
posted by andrewpendleton at 6:42 PM on October 13, 2011 [8 favorites]

9 US fluid ounces = 1.12500 US cups

Ounces and fluid ounces aren't the same thing unless you're measuring water.
posted by jon1270 at 6:43 PM on October 13, 2011

Damn the lack of edit button. Should have been "a bit more than 13 tablespoons," and apparently the OP is female.
posted by andrewpendleton at 6:44 PM on October 13, 2011

Best answer: Wolfram Alpha says it's .836 cups, or about more than 13 tablespoons.

Sugar, quite possibly. Granulated sugar, no. I bake a lot and am certain that granulated sugar weighs slightly less per volume than water. The Wolfram Alpha numbers must be for only the sugar, with no allowance for the inevitable air space between granules.
posted by jon1270 at 6:47 PM on October 13, 2011

Best answer: Just went and measured this out on my kitchen scale for you, using plain granulated white sugar. It's a hair less than 1 and 1/3 cup (but more than 1 and 1/4 cup). Happy cooking!
posted by iminurmefi at 7:03 PM on October 13, 2011 [7 favorites]

Best answer: To add another data point: according to Rose Levy Beranbaum's Cake Bible, one cup of granulated sugar weighs 7 ounces. So 9 ounces would be would be 1.285 cups, or 1 cup, 4 tablespoons, 1.5 teaspoons. There is no baker on Earth more qualified than Beranbaum to do ingredient conversions, AFAIK.
posted by bcwinters at 7:13 PM on October 13, 2011 [2 favorites]

I'm still sticking with my mounding cup answer. Then mix it up. If it doesn't look right add more of something. Taste it. See what it's missing. Put some of that in as well.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:21 PM on October 13, 2011

Here you go.
posted by webhund at 8:13 PM on October 13, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: You can eyeball a tablespoon of sugar for maybe some baked beans, but I'm making a type of caramel. Which, I dare say, is a bit like a science experiment.

Thanks to andrewpendleton for clearing up the fluid/mass oz confusion of posts above, and to jon1270 for further clarifying the Wolfram Alpha numbers. Thanks especially to iminurmefi measuring it out for me, but the input of Beranbaum's conversion made me torn.

I ended up going for exactly 1 1/4 c granulated sugar after I found that others using the same recipe had made the same substitution. Seems to be setting up fine.
posted by ilk at 9:19 PM on October 13, 2011

Yeah, what andrewpendleton said, do not confuse fluid and mass ounces. For sugar it doesn't matter all that much, but that's just a coincedence. 1 cup of flour weighs 4-5 ounces, not 8, for example. And Wolfram Alpha is right, but in the link andrewpendleton gave they assumed "sucrose" for sugar, and sucrose is not sugar. Wolfram Alpha does take the volume between the granules into account. If you type 1 cup sugar in it, it correctly says that it weighs 202 grams (which is about 7 ounces, like bcwinters said).
posted by davar at 12:26 AM on October 14, 2011